3 


The  Prophet! 

Elijah  to  Christ 


By 
ANDREW  W.  BLACKWOOD 


Illustrated  by  Original  Charts 


OGJCALSB 


New    York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming     H.     Revell     Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  19 1 7,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


/ 


To 

Montreal 

in  the  land  of  the  sky 

with  visions 

of 

rest  for  the  weary 

truth  for  the  righteous 

power  for  the  faint 

and 

blessing  for  all 

who  seek  the  glory  of  God 


Foreword 

THESE  studies  on  representative  proph- 
ets of  Judah  and  Israel  aim  to  be 
popular  and  suggestive,  rather  than 
technical  and  exhaustive.  They  have  been 
given  at  the  Montreat  Bible  Conference,  and  at 
similar  assemblies,  as  well  as  in  various  con- 
gregations, notably  in  that  which  I  now  serve 
as  pastor.  Again  and  again  I  have  been  asked 
to  name  at  least  one  book  giving  a  spiritual 
presentation  of  the  prophets  from  the  conserva- 
tive point  of  view,  and  adapted  to  the  needs  of 
the  Christian  business  man  or  house  mother,  as 
well  as  of  our  young  folk  in  school  and  college. 
When  I  have  frankly  confessed  that  so  far  as  I 
know  such  a  book  remains  to  be  written,  some  of 
my  friends  have  kindly  suggested  that  I  prepare 
these  studies  for  the  press.  Those  who  know 
how  the  new  friends  in  the  South  have  opened 
their  hearts  to  me  will  understand  why  their 
wish  has  become  my  law.  Should  we  not 
think  of  the  prophets,  too,  as  our  friends  ? 

These  studies  point  out  an  attractive  route 
over  which  the  busy  pastor  may  lead  his  con- 
gregation, and  by  which  the  thoughtful  lay- 
man, with  no  special  preparation  for  the  task, 
7 


8  FOEEWOED 

and  with  only  a  few  minutes  each  day  for  quiet 
thinking,  may  hope  in  time  to  make  his  way 
through  this  large  portion  of  the  Biblical  world. 
Owing  to  the  vast  areas  of  thought  and  of  life 
to  be  traversed,  the  teacher  can  hope  merely  to 
suggest  a  perspective  and  a  starting  point  for 
each  study,  as  well  as  a  path  of  approach,  and 
then  leave  the  thoughtful  student  to  complete 
the  survey.  The  aim  throughout  must  be,  not 
to  raise  critical  questions,  still  less  to  solve 
them,  but  to  show  the  heart  and  the  life  of 
each  man,  largely  from  a  single  point  of  view, 
and  to  sound  forth  at  least  a  portion  of  his 
message  to  the  modern  world. 

In  quest  of  truth  and  light  on  these  prophets 
I  have  gone  to  many  books,  and  the  best  of 
them  have  sent  me  back  ere  long  to  the  Bible. 
For  counsel  and  encouragement  I  have  looked 
to  a  few  friends,  and  especially  to  three :  Walter 
L.  Lingle,  D.  D.,  presiding  genius  at  Montreat ; 
Win,  M.  McPheeters,  D.  D.,  professor  of  He- 
brew in  the  Columbia  Theological  Seminary ; 
and  George  A.  Wauchope,  Ph.  D.,  professor  of 
English  in  the  University  of  South  Carolina. 
Each  of  these  in  his  own  way  has  let  the  cour- 
tesy of  a  friend  shine  through  the  discrimination 
of  a  scholar.  "  Other  men  have  laboured,  and 
ye  are  entered  into  their  labours." 

A.  W.  B. 

Columbia,  8.  C. 


Contents 

i 

The  Prophets  :  Men  Greater  Than  Kings      i  i 

II 
Elijah  :  The  Prophet  of  Fire  .        .       51 

III 
Amos  :  The  Herdsman  from  the  Hills  .      73 

IV 
Hosea:  The  Prophet  of  Forgiving  Love      89 

V 
Isaiah  :  The  Prophet  to  the  Nation       .     108 

VI 
Micah:   The    Social    Message    of    the 

Prophets  ......     133 

VII 
The  False  Prophets :  Hypocrites  .        .153 

VIII 
Jeremiah:  The  Patriot  and  Saint  .        .     173 

IX 
Malachi  :  An  Old-Fashioned  Revival  .     198 

X 

Jesus  Christ  :  The  Matchless  Prophet  .     217 


Charts 


The  Prophetic  Succession        .         . 
The  Prophet's  Relation  to  Jehovah 
The  Call  of  Representative  Prophets 
The  Foci  of  Prophetic  Teaching      . 
Three  Fundamentals  of  Prophecy    . 
Six  Elements  of  Prophecy  (Elijah)  . 
Cumulative  Causes  of  Despair  (Elijah) 
The  Rebukes  of  Amos 
The  Rebukes  of  Micah    .         .         . 
The  Four  Miracle  Periods,  or  Clusters 
Causes  of  Jeremiah's  Unpopularity  . 
The  Three  Sympathies    . 
Malachi  :  An  Old-Fashioned  Revival 
Jesos  Christ;  The  Matchless  Prophet 
The  Three  Offices  of  Christ 


15 

20 

27 

37 
40 

So 

63 

72 

132 

160 

172 

195 
197 
216 
232 


10 


THE  PEOPHETS :  MEN  GREATEE 
THAN  KINGS 

THE  tourist  who  goes  to  Boston  in  quest 
of  works  of  art  soon  finds  his  way  to 
the  Public  Library,  and  among  all  its 
treasures  he  discovers  nothing  more  interesting 
and  helpful  than  Sargent's  paintings  of  the  Old 
Testament  prophets.  Sargent  was  an  artist 
rather  than  an  interpreter  of  Scripture ;  his 
creations  are  more  worthy  of  note  for  their  in- 
dividuality than  for  their  likeness  to  these  men 
of  the  Bible;  and  so  the  tourist  who  brings 
away  with  him  from  Boston  a  vision  of  this 
work  of  art,  as  well  as  a  copy  to  hang  in  his 
home,  should  turn  to  his  Bible  to  learn  how  well 
the  artist  has  reproduced  the  majesty  of  Isaiah 
and  the  sweetness  of  Hosea,  but  how  dismally 
he  has  failed  to  show  the  strength  of  Amos  and 
the  tenderness  of  Jeremiah. 

These  men  of  old  should  appeal  to  all  of  us 

who  are  interested  in  personality.     Nowhere  in 

all  history  and  literature,  not  even  in  the  Bible, 

can  we  find  a  body  of  men  who  for  character 

11 


12  THE  PKOPHETS 

and  attainment  surpass  these  prophets  of  Judah 
and  Israel.  Where,  for  example,  in  all  the  his- 
tory of  these  two  nations  can  we  find  four 
kings,  to  whom  the  world  is  so  much  indebted 
as  to  the  four  prophets  mentioned  above  ? 
Where  among  all  the  priests  ?  And  even 
among  the  apostles,  as  portrayed  in  "  The  Last 
Supper,"  which  four  should  we  select  ?  If  we 
scan  our  own  age,  with  all  its  boasted  prog- 
ress, we  shall  look  in  vain  for  four  such  giants 
of  thought  and  action.  These  comparisons 
are  hazardous,  for  we  cannot  weigh  men  as  we 
weigh  cattle ;  but  only  when  we  set  the  proph- 
ets over  against  other  men  of  might,  do  we 
begin  to  value  the  "force  of  their  inspired 
personality." 

Many  of  us  who  know  a  little  about  the 
greater  kings  of  Judah  and  Israel  know  almost 
nothing  about  the  prophets  who  were  respon- 
sible for  much  that  was  good  in  the  work  of 
those  kings.  In  our  study  of  American  history 
in  the  public  schools  we  have  paid  more  heed 
to  the  hero  of  war  than  to  the  hero  of  peace, 
and  in  our  hasty  excursions  through  the  Bible 
in  the  Sabbath  school  we  have  given  more 
thought  to  the  puppet  on  the  throne  than  to 
the  ambassador  from  the  court  of  God.  We 
must  not  disparage  the  kings,  for  some  of  them 


MEN  GEEATEE  THAN  KINGS         13 

were  true  and  strong,  but  if  we  are  to  under- 
stand how  far  short  many  of  them  fell  from 
their  divine  ideal,  we  must  become  acquainted 
with  the  prophets. 

Think,  for  example,  of  Samuel  and  Saul,  of 
David  and  Nathan,  of  Ahab  and  Elijah,  of 
Jehoram  and  Elisha,  of  Jeroboam  II  over 
against  Amos  and  Hosea,  of  Uzziah  and  his 
successors  over  against  Isaiah,  of  Josiah  and 
Jeremiah,  of  Jehoiachin  and  Ezekiel ;  not  to 
speak  of  Daniel,  of  Haggai,  of  Zechariah,  and 
of  the  many  others  down  to  Malachi,  who  spoke 
for  God  after  the  kings  had  ceased  to  reign. 
We  often  say  with  truth  that  no  man  is  edu- 
cated unless  he  knows  the  Scriptures ;  we  should 
add  that  no  man  knows  the  Scriptures  unless  he 
knows  the  prophets,  and  yet  many  of  us  are  in- 
trusting the  religious  education  of  our  children 
to  pious  young  persons  who  have  a  smattering 
of  the  external  facts  about  the  kings,  but  who 
have  scarcely  so  much  as  heard  that  there  were 
such  men  as  the  prophets. 

For  such  ignorance  of  the  prophets  we  minis- 
ters are  to  blame.  If  our  people  are  to  value 
these  men  who  upheld  the  hands  of  the  kings 
that  were  true,  and  who  thundered  doom 
against  those  that  were  false,  we  must  lead  the 
way.     In  the  Sabbath  school  we  must  some- 


14  THE  PEOPHETS 

how  teach  our  young  folk  to  read  their  Bible 
so  that  they  will  not  breathe  a  sigh  of  relief 
when  they  have  finished  the  Minor  Prophets. 
In  our  preaching,  instead  of  turning  to  the 
prophets  only  when  we  wish  a  striking  text,  to 
be  snatched  out  of  its  setting  because  it  sounds 
well,  and  to  be  applied  in  an  arbitrary  fashion 
which  must  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit,  we  ought 
rather  to  lead  our  people  in  time  into  an  in- 
telligent appreciation  of  the  outstanding  seers 
and  of  their  message  to  the  modern  age.  We 
must  know  the  truth  ere  it  can  make  us  free. 
"  He  that  was  sown  upon  the  good  ground,  this 
is  he  that  heareth  the  "Word,  and  understand- 
eth  it ;  who  verily  beareth  fruit." 

I.    A  BircPs-JEye  View 

When  Sargent  gathered  these  prophets  to- 
gether in  a  single  group,  he  took  full  advantage 
of  his  license  as  an  artist,  for  in  life  these  men 
formed  a  succession  extending  over  long  cen- 
turies. It  would  be  interesting  to  study  the 
Old  Testament  for  a  time  with  the  one  purpose 
of  discovering,  so  far  as  possible,  how  large 
these  men  loomed  in  every  age.  We  should 
find  that  almost  every  outstanding  leader  of 
God's  people,  such  as  Noah  or  Abraham,  was  a 
prophet,  in  the  larger  sense  of  that  word ;  and 


MEN  GREATER  THAN  KINGS 


15 


(Adapted  from  Dr.  W.  W.  White.) 

The  Peophetic  Succession. 


16  THE  PROPHETS 

that  the  entire  Old  Testament  was  written  by 
these  men  of  God.  But  in  the  present  studies, 
for  sake  of  clearness,  we  shall  think  only  of  the 
leading  prophets  from  the  days  of  Elijah  to  the 
days  of  Malachi. 

In  the  earlier  days  of  Judah  and  Israel,  the 
power  of  these  men  of  God  gradually  waxed 
greater  and  greater,  until  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury before  Christ  the  golden  age  of  prophecy 
reached  its  crest ;  and  then,  as  the  power  of  the 
priests  became  more  and  more,  that  of  the 
prophets  grew  less  and  less,  until  in  the  last 
centuries  before  the  Messiah  came,  the  pro- 
phetio  order  had  practically  disappeared.  But 
as  Dr.  Beecher  says  in  his  masterly  book,  "  The 
Prophets  and  the  Promise  "  :  "  From  the  Chris- 
tian point  of  view  it  is  plausible  to  affirm  that 
the  succession  reappeared  in  the  person  of  John 
the  Baptist,  followed  by  Jesus  Himself,  and  by 
the  apostles  and  prophets  of  primitive  Chris- 
tianity." 

When  we  speak  of  the  prophets,  we  usually 
think  of  a  comparatively  few  outstanding  men, 
such  as  those  whom  we  are  about  to  study,  but 
we  must  also  remember  the  groups  of  smaller 
men  popularly  styled  the  "  schools  of  the  proph- 
ets," to  correspond  with  our  theological  semi- 
naries, but  named  by  Dr.  Beecher  the  "secondary 


MEN  GREATER  THAN  KINGS         1? 

prophets."  We  know  little  about  these  satel- 
lites, save  that  in  the  times  when  prophecy 
flourished  they  were  strong  in  numbers :  at  one 
time  four  hundred  were  assembled,  and  at  an- 
other time,  one  hundred.  We  suspect  that 
from  their  ranks  were  recruited  many  of  the 
false  prophets.  But  we  are  directly  concerned 
only  with  the  primary  prophets,  round  whom 
these  lesser  lights  revolved. 

We  may  judge  the  prophets,  first  of  all,  by 
their  titles.  In  Hebrew  thought  and  life  such 
names  were  always  filled  with  meaning,  and 
especially  when  given  directly  by  Jehovah.  In 
the  earlier  days  the  most  common  title  was 
probably  that  of  seer.  This  English  term  is 
the  loose  translation  of  two  wprds  in  the  He- 
brew,  both  of  which  suggest  a  man  who  de- 
pended upon  God  for  a  vision  of  the  truth 
which  he  was  later  to  reveal  to  his  people. 
This  title  shows  the  prophet's  relation  to  God 
rather  than  to  men,  a  relation  of  absolute  in- 
dependence. It  points  to  the  vast  supernat- 
ural element  in  prophecy.  "  Where  there  is 
no  vision  the  people  jperish." 

This  title,  the  seer,  seems  gradually  to  have 
given  way  to  the  more  inclusive  term,  the 
prophet.  Such  a  transition  is  reflected  in  an 
explanatory    remark    in   the  narrative  about 


18  THE  PEOPHETS 

Saul's  seeking  his  father's  asses :  "  Beforetime 
in  Israel,  when  a  man  went  to  inquire  of  God, 
thus  he  said,  '  Come  and  let  us  go  to  the  seer ' ; 
for  he  that  is  now  called  a  prophet  was  before- 
time  called  a  seer"  (1  Sam.  ix.  9).  Scholars 
differ  about  the  exact  origin  of  this  Hebrew 
title  which  we  translate  prophet,  but  all  agree 
that  it  means  a  forth-teller,  and  not,  as  we 
usually  think,  a  mere  foreteller.  In  the  cor- 
responding Greek  word,  from  which  our  Eng- 
lish term  is  directly  taken,  the  emphasis  is  the 
same :  the  prophet  speaks  for  Jehovah  ;  and  so 
far  as  this  title  shows,  his  message  may  concern 
the  past  and  the  present,  as  well  as  the  future. 
The  man  who  had  a  message  from  Jehovah  had 
at  the  same  time  a  mission  to  the  people. 

This  twofold  relation  of  the  prophet  appears 
in  a  striking  form  in  Exodus  vii.  1,  2 :  "  Je- 
hovah said  unto  Moses,  '  See,  I  have  made  thee 
as  God  to  Pharaoh  :  and  Aaron  thy  brother 
shall  be  thy  prophet.  Thou  shalt  speak  all 
that  I  command  thee ;  and  Aaron  thy  brother 
shall  speak  unto  Pharaoh,  that  he  let  the  Chil- 
dren of  Israel  go  out  of  his  land.'  "  Different 
aspects  of  this  twofold  relation  are  suggested 
by  still  other  titles,  some  of  which  are  figura- 
tive: "man  of  God,"  "man  of  the  Spirit," 
"  servant  of  Jehovah,"  "  ambassador,"  "  messen- 


MEN  GKEATER  THAN  KINGS         19 

ger,"  "  watchman,"  "  interpreter,"  and  "  shep- 
herd." Even  more  eloquent  of  dependence  on 
Jehovah,  and  of  consequent  authority  to  speak 
in  His  name,  are  the  various  phrases  by  which 
these  men  prefaced  their  messages,  of  which 
the  most  common  is  this :  "  Thus  saith  Je- 
hovah." 

II     Their  Work 

The  task  of  the  prophets  was  to  lead  the 
chosen  people  in  establishing  the  kingdom  of 
God  in  the  world.  Such  a  stupendous  task 
called  for  the  highest  gifts  and  graces,  higher 
by  far  than  those  needed  in^the  faithf uljpriests, 
higher  even  than  those  required  of  the  worthy 
kings.  In  general,  the  priests  represented  men 
before  God;  the  prophets,  God  before  men. 
Only  a  few  men  were  by  nature  and  by  grace 
strong  enough  and  good  enough  to  serve  among 
the  primary  prophets.  "  There  were  giants  in 
the  earth  in  those  days  "  ;  " '  Not  by  might,  nor 
by  power,  but  by  My  Spirit,'  saith  Jehovah  of 
hosts." 

So  vast  and  so  varied  were  the  needs  of  the 
kingdom  that  there  was  room  in  the  prophetic 
order  for  the  widest  differences  in  tempera- 
ment, and  in  methods  of  approach  to  the  com- 
mon task.     Barely  in  history  have  there  been 


20  THE  PKOPHETS 


JEHOVAH 


The  Prophet's  Belation  to  Jehovah. 


MEN  GEEATEE  THAN  KINGS         21 

greater  differences  among  good  men  fired  with 
zeal  for  a  common  purpose :  each  prophet^was 
moved  by  the  Spirit  to  become  his  highest  self, 
and  in  his  own  way  to  do  with  his  might  what 
his  hand  found  to  do  in  redeeming  his  age. 

Herein  lies  much  of  the  religious  value  of 
Sargent's  figures :  they  stand  before  us  in  liv- 
ing forms  as  individual  men.  His  prophets  are 
not  exact  photographs  of  the  men  of  the  Bible, 
but  they  are  real  men,  and  no  two  of  them  are 
alike.  It  will  be  necessary  for  us,  however,  to 
think  just  now  of  certain  broad  resemblances. 

The  prophets,  first  of  all,  were  preachers :  jf 
champions  of  righteousness,  and  heralds  of  the 
Promise.  The  essence  of  preaching,  according 
to  Phillips  Brooks,  is  twofold :  truth  and  per- 
sonality ;  or  better  still,  truth  through  person- 
ality. And  a  sermon  is  a  spiritual  message 
from  God,  through  a  man's  experience,  and 
thence  to  the  souls  of  other  men.  "When  we 
apply  this  lofty  standard,  where  can  we  find 
such  preachers  as  the  Old  Testament  prophets, 
and  such  sermons  as  they  spake  and  wrote  ?  Is 
it  any  wonder  that  Professor  James  Stalker,  of 
Glasgow,  when  lecturing  at  Yale  on  how  to 
preach,  devoted  more  than  half  of  his  course  to 
the  prophets  as  preachers  ? 

These    preachers    are   worthy  of    study  as 


22  THE  PKOPHETS 

masters  of  style.  They  were  the  leading 
orators  of  their  own  times,  and  to  this  day 
they  have  never  been  excelled.  They  were 
blessed  with  many  gifts  and  graces,  all  of 
which  they  dedicated  to  their  high  calling ; 
hence  they  spoke  with  tremendous  force,  with 
impassioned  feeling,  and  with  that  intangible 
something  which  we  call  eloquence  almost 
divine.  Their  writings  have  served  as  models 
for  the  orators  of  later  times,  many  of  whom 
have  counted  it  an  honour  to  be  told  that  they 
had  modelled  their  periods  in  the  manner  of 
Isaiah,  the  prince  among  orators.^ 

The  prophets  could  not  have  excelled  in 
public  speech  had  they  not  also  been  gifted 
with  poetic  powers.  Even  when  not  speaking 
in  words  which  could  be  printed  as  poetry, 
they  employed  that  sort  of  heightened  prose 
which  is  close  akin  to  verse.  But  in  many  of 
their  loftiest  messages,  such  as  the  fifty-third 
chapter  of,  Isaiah,  they  were  speaking  with  all 
the  rhythm,  the  beauty  and  the  power  of  the 
most  exquisite  poetry  ;  and  if  such  passages 
were  printed  in  our  English  Bible  in  a  some- 
what worthy  form,  we  might  catch  a  vision 
new  and  strange  — 

"  Like  some  watcher  of  the  skies 
When  a  new  planet  swims  into  his  ken.,? 


MEN  GREATER  THAN  KINGS         23 

These  men  of  God  were  no  mere  dilettante 
dabblers  in  prose  and  verse.  They  were 
preachers  with  a  message  so  regal  that  it  de- 
'  manded  the  richest  garb.  They  were  the  best  y 
educated  men  of  their  times,  with  the  broadest 
outlook  and  the  deepest  sympathy  ;  hence  they 
were  the  historians  of  their  land.  They  were 
not  so  much  the  "  chroniclers  of  wasted  time  " 
as  unfolders  of  God's  principles  in  dealing  with 
His  chosen  people.  Out  of  the  facts  which 
men  style  secular,  these  preachers  forged  mes- 
sages which  enforced  truths  the  most  spiritual. 

We  think  of  the  prophets  as  professional 
preachers,  more  or  less  like  the  men  in  our  pul- 
pits to-day,  but  their  contemporaries  must  have 
thought  of  them  first  of  all  as  public  men  of 
affairs :  as  statesmen,  reformers,  politicians, 
iconoclasts,  or  traitors, — according  to  the 
point  of  view.  As  a  rule  the  prophet  kept 
close  to  his  king  :  "  And  Nathan  said  to  David, 
1  Thou  art  the  man.'  "  "Whether  such  a  saint 
as  Hezekiah  was  on  the  throne,  or  such  a  sin- 
ner as  Ahab,  the  man  of  God  persisted  in  de- 
claring to  the  king  the  will  of  God  for  him  and 
for  his  land  ;  but  often  in  vain.  From  the  king 
the  prophet  appealed  again  and  again  to  the 
people;  and  with  them,  too,  he  often  failed. 
Sometimes,  as  we  learn  from  Ezekiel,  the  seer 


24  THE  PROPHETS 

pleaded  with  men  one  by  one,  but  here  again 
he  met  with  only  imperfect  success. 

These  public  men  were  the  idealists  of  their 
respective  ages.  They  lived  so  far  in  advance 
of  popular  ideals  and  attainments  that  they 
aroused  the  opposition  of  the  worldly  nation,  of 
the  worldly  kings,  and  of  the  worldly  priests. 
The  prophets  were  spiritual  progressives :  they 
took  up  old  truth,  presented  it  in  new  forms, 
and  applied  it  fearlessly  to  changed  conditions. 
The  priests  as  a  whole  were  religious  tradition- 
alists :  they  strove  to  keep  the  new  wine  in 
their  old  bottles,  and  when  the  bottles  burst, 
they  knew  not  what  to  do.  But  all  the  while 
they  feared  the  prophets  more  and  more,  and 
from  time  to  time  they  conspired  with  the 
rulers  and  the  people  to  put  the  meddlesome 
seers  out  of  the  way !  In  fine,  always  and 
everywhere  the  prophets  were  "  spiritual  states- 
men in  the  kingdom  of  God." 

III.     Their  Sjriritual  Equipment 

For  such  stupendous  tasks  the  Spirit  fully 
prepared  these  men  by  awakening  and  foster- 
ing in  them  a  sense  of  absolute  dependence  on 
God.  This  is  their  most  prominent  character- 
istic. Altogether  apart  from  such  supernatural 
endowment,  they  were  giants,  and  they  would 


MEN  GREATER  THAN  KINGS         25 

have  shone  in  any  other  sphere  in  which  they 
might  have  been  placed  ;  but  as  prophets  they 
could  never  have  been  true  to  God  or  helpful  to 
men,  had  they  not  consciously  lived  and  moved 
and  had  their  being  in  Him.  Their  dependence 
appears  from  the  manner  of  their  call,  from  the 
holiness  of  their  lives  and  from  the  nature  of 
their  messages. 

Such  a  sense  of  dependence  upon  God  was  no 
happy  accident^  In  the  phrase  of  Moses,  God 
"raised  up "  the  prophets.  He  reared  them  in 
homes  of  piety  ;  He  permitted  many  of  them  to 
receive  a  liberal  education,  and  perhaps  to  serve 
an  apprenticeship  in  other  walks  of  life ;  then 
He  called  them  to  their  life-work,  usually  while 
they  were  still  young.  Ezekiel  and  others  He 
called  from  the  priesthood ;  Isaiah,  from  the 
aristocracy ;  Micah,  from  the  village  folk  ;  and 
Amos,  from  the  lower  walks  of  rural  life ;  but 
in  each  man  He  produced  a  sense  of  dependence 
upon  Himself.  In  divers  manners  He  called 
them,  but  He  left  no  shadow  of  doubt  or  un- 
certainty that  henceforth  and  forever  they  were 
to  be,  in  the  loftiest  sense  of  the  term,  men  of 
God. 

The  call  of  Isaiah  is  somewhat  typical.  It 
shows  us  how  a  youth  in  the  Temple  beheld  the 
glory  of  God,  and  at  once  became  conscious  of 


26  THE  PROPHETS 

sinful  speech  in  himself  and  among  his  people ; 
how  his  lips  were  cleansed  as  by  fire  ;  how  he 
heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord,  "  Whom  shall  I 
send,  and  who  will  go  for  us  ?  "  ;  how  at  once 
he  replied,  "  Here  am  I ;  send  me  " ;  and  how 
he  was  commissioned  to  proclaim  a  message  so 
stern  that  only  a  remnant  of  his  people  would 
hearken.  All  of  this  is  so  familiar  that  it  has 
not  sufficiently  impressed  on  us  its  central  truth : 
the  call  of  Isaiah  made  him  dependent  on  God. 
With  such  a  vision  stamped  upon  his  youthful 
soul,  and  with  such  a  call  ever  sounding  in  his 
ears,  he  went  on  and  on,  until  at  last,  if  tradi- 
tion be  true,  he  was  sawn  asunder,  because  he 
had  ever  been  loyal  to  his  God. 

The  prophets  were  equally  dependent  upon 
God  for  their  personal  holiness.  With  few  ex- 
ceptions they  felt  unworthy  of  such  a  high  call- 
ing, not  because  they  knew  themselves  to  be 
worse  than  their  fellows,  but  because  they  had 
caught  a  new  vision  of  the  holiness  of  God  and 
of  the  blackness  of  sin.  They  were  afraid  to 
trust  themselves,  but  they  learned  to  trust  God, 
and  so  they  became  more  and  more  holy.  Their 
life  itself  was  often  their  most  eloquent  mes- 
sage, and  if  they  had  been  worldly,  not  to  say 
vile,  their  words  would  have  been  worse  than 
vain.     Many  of  the  details  of  their  lives  were 


MEN  GREATER  THAN  KINGS 


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28  THE  PEOPHETS 

symbols  of  spiritual  truth.  In  short,  these  men 
lived  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
whether  they  ate  or  drank,  or  whatsoever  they 
did,  they  did  all  for  the  glory  of  God. 

These  prophets  were  dependent  upon  God  for 
revealing  the  truth  to  themselves,  and  for  in- 
spiring them  in  transmitting  it  to  others.  Such 
is  the  uniform  claim  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
the  uniform  teaching  of  the  New,  which  accepts 
at  their  face  value  these  older  messages  from 
God.  This  is  not  to  say  that  God  revealed 
to  the  seers  in  what  we  style  a  supernatural 
fashion  truth  which  they  might  have  learned 
by  their  senses  and  their  reason,  but  that  He 
moved  upon  them  in  accordance  with  the  na- 
tures which  He  had  given,  so  that  each  man's 
message  bore  the  impress  of  his  own  individ- 
uality, but  at  the  same  time  bore  unmistakable 
signs  that  it  came  from  above.  What  else  do 
they  mean  when  they  preface  their  messages 
with  the  familiar  words,  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah  "  ? 

The  truth  outlined  in  the  last  few  paragraphs 
is  the  most  important  in  this  book,  and  the  most 
difficult  to  unfold.  Let  us  leave  it,  therefore, 
with  the  simple  conclusion  that  we  know  almost 
nothing  worth  knowing  about  the  prophets, 
unless  we  remember  that  so  far  as  they  were 
true,  they  were  absolutely  dependent  upon  God. 


MEN  GREATEE  THAN  KINGS         29 

"  No  prophecy  of  Scripture  is  of  private  inter- 
pretation. For  no  prophecy  ever  came  by  the 
will  of  man :  but  men  spake  from  God,  being 
moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit." 

IV.     Their  Independence 

These  men  of  God  were  in  the  noblest  sense 
men  of  their  own  times.  They  were  no  mere 
hermits  or  monks,  garbed  in  weird,  fantastic  at- 
tire, stealing  out  from  their  musty  caves  to  ut- 
ter their  gloomy  forebodings,  and  then  slinking 
back  into  their  seclusion.  They  were  practical 
men  of  affairs,  as  well  as  dreamers  of  dreams ; 
and  they  never  ceased  to  feel  that  they  were 
integral  parts  of  the  people,  whose  burdens  they 
must  share,  and  over  whose  sins  they  must 
weep.  When  called  to  be  seers,  they  came  out 
from  the  midst  of  their  people,  only  in  the  sense 
that  they  became  more  holy,  and  that  they 
stood  closer  to  God,  so  that  they  might  unfold 
His  truth  to  their  fellows.  Of  the  genuine  seer 
it  could  scarcely  be  said,  "  He  was  a  star,  and 
dwelt  apart." 

In  a  most  vital  sense,  nevertheless,  these  men 
of  God  were  independent  of  the  people.  They 
never  adapted  their  deeds  or  their  words  so  as 
to  conform  to  the  whims  or  the  threats  of  the 
world.     They  depended  directly  upon  God  for 


30  THE  PEOPHETS 

their  food  and  drink  ;  and  while  ordinarily  they 
must  have  received  their  means  of  livelihood 
through  the  regular  channels  of  the  Church, 
they  held  themselves  free  to  rebuke  the  sins  of 
the  hands  which  fed  them.  They  must  at  times 
have  received  what  the  world  would  style  a 
meager  and  precarious  subsistence;  but  they 
tell  us  little  about  such  things,  which  in  their 
eyes  bulked  quite  small.  When  they  were  ac- 
cused of  talking  for  bread,  however,  they  must 
have  been  struck  to  the  heart.  "  Amaziah  said 
unto  Amos,  '  O  thou  seer,  go,  flee  thou  away 
into  the  land  of  Judah,  and  there  eat  bread, 
and  prophesy  there.' " 

"  Just  for  a  handful  of  silver  he  left  us 
Just  for  a  riband  to  stick  in  his  coat." 

Many  a  man  strong  enough  to  resist  the  open 
temptations  of  money  has  yielded  to  the  more 
subtle  temptation  to  speak  in  such  a  pleasing 
fashion  as  to  become  popular  and  famous  ;  but 
so  entirely  had  the  prophets  yielded  themselves 
to  Jehovah  that  they  could  resist  the  demands 
of  a  people  clamouring  for  smooth  sayings,  and 
threatening  to  slay  them  if  they  did  not  com- 
ply. Their  attitude  may  be  inferred  from  this 
message  to  Ezekiel,  at  a  time  when  for  the 
nonce  it  had  become  the  proper  thing  to  go 


MEN  GREATER  THAN  KINGS         31 

and  hear  the  prophet  preach.  "  Lo,  thou  art 
unto  them  as  a  very  lovely  song  of  one  that 
hath  a  pleasant  voice,  and  can  play  well  on  an 
instrument :  for  they  hear  thy  words,  but  they 
do  them  not." 

"  Lord,  who  hath  believed  our  report  ?  "  If 
the  prophets  had  been  as  sad  of  countenance 
as  Sargent  would  make  us  believe,  it  would 
not  have  been  merely  because  they  longed  to 
be  popular,  but  because  their  people  would  not 
repent.  "  Turn  ye,  turn  ye  from  your  evil 
ways,  for  why  will  ye  die,  O  house  of  Israel  ?  " 
And  when  these  holiest  of  men  faced  martyr- 
dom unafraid,  it  was  because  they  had  received 
from  the  Lord,  and  had  delivered  to  His  peo- 
ple, a  higher  standard  of  religion  and  of  life 
than  the  people  were  willing  to  receive  or  to 
obey.  Of  the  prophets  it  has  been  written — 
"  They  were  stoned,  they  were  sawn  asunder, 
they  were  tempted,  they  were  slain  with  the 
sword  ...  of  whom  the  world  was  not 
worthy." 

V.     Their  Credentials 
The  fate  of  many  of  these  saints  raises  an  in- 
teresting question.     They  were  messengers  from 
Jehovah  ;  why  then  were  they  not  received  as 
such,  and  treated  with  the  respect  due  to  men 


32  THE  PEOPHETS 

of  their  character  and  mission?  Were  they 
not  properly  accredited  ?  Yes  ;  from  Moses  to 
Malachi  every  true  prophet  fully  attested  his 
right  to  speak  to  his  people ;  but  as  Jeremiah 
quickly  discovered,  the  human  heart  is  deceitful 
above  all  things,  and  it  can  easily  invent  count- 
less excuses  for  hating  the  bearer  of  unwelcome 
tidings.  In  view  of  the  clearness  and  the  va- 
riety of  the  credentials  which  the  prophets 
bore,  only  a  people  whose  eyes  were  blinded 
by  sin  could  have  refused  to  behold  in  them 
the  ambassadors  of  the  King. 

Their  first  credential  was  the  fulfillment 
of  their  predictions.  "  How  shall  we  know  the 
word  which  Jehovah  hath  not  spoken  ?  4  "When 
a  prophet  speaketh  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  if 
the  thing  follow  not,  nor  come  to  pass,  that  is 
the  thing  which  Jehovah  hath  not  spoken'" 
(Deut.  xviii.  21,  22).  Many  scholars  make 
light  of  this  test,  but  it  never  seemed  to  the 
prophets  themselves  to  be  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence whether  their  predictions  were  fulfilled  or 
not.  When  Ezekiel  was  sad  at  heart  because 
his  people  heard  him  only  with  the  hearing  of 
the  ear,  he  received  from  the  Lord  a  word  to 
reassure  him :  "  When  this  cometh  to  pass 
(behold  it  cometh  !)  then  shall  they  know  that 
a  prophet  hath  been  among  them." 


MEN  GREATER  THAN  KINGS         33 

Another  credential,  to  which  many  scholars 
suppose  the  prophets  to  have  attached  undue 
weight,  was  their  performance  of  miracles. 
Moses,  Elijah,  and  EJisha,  not  to  speak  of  the 
final  Prophet,  performed  mighty  works,  not 
only  as  supernatural  object  lessons  to  illustrate 
and  enforce  their  teachings,  and  as  deeds  of 
mercy  to  relieve  human  distress,  but  largely  as 
signs  to  prove  that  they  spoke  for  God.  It  is 
only  fair  to  add,  however,  that  such  powers 
were  not  given  to  the  prophets  of  every  age, 
but  as  a  rule,  only  at  a  few  crises  in  redemp- 
tive history.  A  casual  glance  at  the  periods 
when  miracles  were  prominent  in  the  work  of 
the  prophets  will  show  that  many  of  them,  in- 
cluding some  of  the  greatest,  relied  almost 
altogether  upon  proofs  less  external. 

The  ultimate  credential  of  a  prophet,  after 
all,  was  purely  spiritual.  For  want  of  better 
words,  scholars  style  this  the  self-evidencing 
power  of  the  truth,  and  to  this  spiritual  test 
they  ascribe  unmeasured  importance;  so  did 
the  men  themselves ;  and  so  should  we.  In 
the  seer's  consciousness  of  a  call,  in  his  holiness 
of  life,  and  above  all  else,  in  his  revelation  of 
truth  which  could  hail  only  from  above,  he 
proved  his  right  to  speak  for  God.  Such  spir- 
itual credentials  could  fitly  appeal  only  to  other 


34  THE  PROPHETS 

men  of  the  Spirit.  "  He  that  is  of  the  truth 
heareth  my  voice."  The  Spirit  would  witness 
with  the  spirits  of  the  saints  that  the  seer  was 
a  man  of  God.  But,  alas,  the  average  man 
who  weighed  the  claims  of  the  prophet  was  by- 
no  means  a  saint.  "  The  natural  man  receiveth 
not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God ;  for  they 
are  foolishness  unto  him  ;  and  he  cannot  know 
them  for  they  are  spiritually  judged."  It 
should  be  evident  long  ere  this  why  a  nation 
which  was  waxing  more  and  more  worldly 
should  often  have  applauded  the  false  prophets, 
and  have  slain  the  true. 

VI.     Their  Teaching 

Above  all  things  else,  the  prophets  were 
moral  and  religious  teachers.  Their  lives  were 
a  constant  rebuke  to  sin,  and  a  constant  in- 
centive to  righteousness.  Some  of  them,  such 
as  Elijah,  taught  by  action,  rather  than  by 
written  words,  but  the  other  men  whom  we 
are  to  study  taught  by  pen,  as  well  as  by  deed 
and  word.  Each  man  differed  from  every 
other  in  teaching  as  in  character  ;  but  beneath 
these  differences  lay  certain  broad  resem- 
blances. Their  teaching  may  be  viewed  as 
an  ellipse,  of  which  the  lower  focus  was  the 
Law,   which  is  righteousness,  and  the  upper 


MEN  GREATER  THAN  KINGS         35 

focus  was  the  Promise,  which  culminated  in 
the  Messiah.  Round  these  two  foci  all  proph- 
ecy revolved :  one  prophet  kept  closer  to  the 
Law,  and  another  gazed  more  often  at  the 
Promise ;  at  one  time,  a  prophet  dealt  more 
directly  with  the  Law,  and  at  another  time, 
with  the  Promise ;  but  when  dealing  with  the 
Law,  the  prophet  ever  saw  in  the  distance  as  a 
star  of  hope  the  Promise  ;  and  when  gazing  di- 
rectly at  the  Promise,  his  feet  were  ever  planted 
upon  the  solid  rock,  the  Law  of  righteousness. 

The  Promise  culminated  in  the  Messiah,  but 
the  moral  and  religious  teaching,  of  which  the 
heart  was  the  Law,  likewise  prepared  for  His 
coming.  Without  the  Promise,  the  Law  might 
have  become  too  largely  a  matter  of  outward 
religious  observance ;  without  the  Law,  the 
Promise  would  have  been  too  exclusively  a 
spiritual  theory ;  but  together  these  two  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  coming  of  the  King. 
The  prophets  rose  to  their  loftiest  heights 
when  they  pointed  men's  weary  eyes  to  the 
Redeemer,  but  if  they  had  not  unfolded  the 
spiritual  beauty  and  power  of  the  kingdom 
which  He  would  come  to  establish,  they  could 
not  have  prepared  the  hearts  even  of  the  rem- 
nant of  their  people  to  receive  the  King.  To 
adopt    another    figure,  the  Promise  gleamed 


36  THE  PEOPHETS 

forth  here  and  there  and  yonder  on  the  loft- 
iest peaks  of  prediction;  but  the  Law  of 
righteousness  was  ever  beneath,  as  the  moun- 
tain range  to  support  those  sun-lit  peaks. 

Many  scholars  will  not  accept  such  a  view 
of  the  facts  of  prophecy.  Eationalists  of  the 
more  extreme  type,  such  as  the  successors  of 
that  brilliant  Frenchman,  Kenan,  rule  out  from 
prophecy  all  prediction,  so  far  as  it  would  pre- 
suppose supernatural  guidance.  Allegorists  of 
the  more  extreme  type,  followers  of  Origen, 
think  of  prophecy  as  composed  almost  entirely 
of  prediction.  Religious  teachers  in  America 
to-day  swing  towards  one  or  the  other  of  these 
extremes.  Apart  from  a  comparatively  small 
school,  composed  of  our  most  spiritual  men, 
such  as  my  own  beloved  teacher,  the  late 
Dr.  W.  G.  Moorehead, — the  modern  age  is 
swinging  more  and  more  to  the  side  of  the 
rationalists ;  we  are  tempted  to  see  in  the 
prophetic  books  fewer  and  still  fewer  pre- 
dictions. If  we  were  forced  to  choose  be- 
tween these  two  extremes,  all  of  us  who  love 
the  Lord  would  choose  to  ally  ourselves  with 
those  who  strive  to  behold  Him  where  He  is 
scarcely  to  be  found,  rather  than  with  those 
who  see  in  the  Old  Testament  no  highway  pre- 
pared for  our  King. 


MEN  GEEATEE  THAN  KINGS         37 


The  Foci  of  Prophetic  Teaching. 


38  THE  PROPHETS 

The  present  course  of  studies  frankly  pro- 
ceeds from  the  assumption  that  the  truth  lies 
between  these  two  extremes,  but  far  closer  to 
the  allegorical  than  to  the  rationalistic ;  that 
each  of  these  schools  is  correct,  at  least  in  part, 
in  what  it  affirms,  but  incorrect,  at  least  in 
part,  in  what  it  denies.  The  allegorical  school 
says  with  truth  that  there  is  in  prophecy  a 
large  and  precious  element  of  prediction,  with- 
out which  it  could  scarcely  have  survived  ;  the 
rationalist  replies  with  equal  truth  that  there 
is  here  a  vast  body  of  historical  fact,  without 
which  prophecy  could  never  have  been  born. 
The  great  body  of  thinkers,  including  some  of 
the  more  conservative  and  orthodox,  such  as 
my  own  revered  teachers,  Dr.  Vos,  of  Prince- 
ton, and  Dr.  "Wishart,  of  Xenia,  as  well  as  many 
of  the  more  liberal  scholars,  such  as  Dr.  George 
Adam  Smith  and  the  late  Dr.  A.  B.  Davidson, 
both  of  Scotland,  occupy  stations  somewhere  in 
this  vast  middle  ground,  where  they  can  view 
both  the  broad  base  and  the  lofty  peaks  of  the 
mountain  range.  As  a  body  many  of  these 
men  style  themselves  the  Historical  School. 

VII.     TJie  Non-Predictive  Element 

Instead  of  assuming  that  the  prophet  was 
merely  a  foreteller,   and  that  prophecy   was 


MEN  GEEATEE  THAN  KINGS         39 

simply  a  "  premature  unrolling  of  the  history 
of  the  future  to  gratify  an  idle  curiosity,"  a 
sort  of  mirror  held  up  to  reflect  the  course  of 
coming  events,  let  us  take  for  granted  that  the 
prophet  always  and  everywhere  was  an  ethical 
and  spiritual  teacher,  addressing  real  people  in 
the  midst  of  a  real  world,  and  for  their  spiri- 
tual nourishment  or  their  reclamation,  revealing 
more  fully  the  spiritual  teachings  of  the  Law 
of  righteousness.  To  his  own  people,  first  of 
all,  these  God-breathed  messages  were  "  profit- 
able for  teaching,  for  reproof,  for  correction, 
for  instruction  which  is  in  righteousness." 

Prophetic  teaching  dealt  largely  with  the 
past,  to  "justify  the  ways  of  God  to  men," 
by  showing  how  He  had  dealt  with  His 
chosen  people,  and  how  from  His  point  of 
view  all  history  should  rebuke  sin  and  en- 
courage righteousness.  This  teaching  dealt 
largely  also  with  the  present,  in  which  the 
man  of  God  pointed  out  the  way  of  truth  and 
duty,  in  obedience  to  the  same  Law,  and 
warned  his  people  not  to  walk  in  the  way  of 
the  world.  Upon  such  a  broad,  deep  founda- 
tion of  solid  fact,  the  inspired  prophet  could 
base  the  loftiest  structure  of  predictive  hope, 
for  "  the  prophecies  were  not  human  ideals 
but  divine  ideas."    Any  reader  who  wishes  to 


40  THE  PROPHETS 


H 

I 


COVENANT 


Theee  Fundamentals  of  Pbophetio 
Teaching. 


MEN  GKEATER  THAN  KINGS         41 

follow  out  this  line  of  thought  should  consult 
that  masterly  book  from  which  the  phrase 
above  is  taken,  "  The  Doctrine  of  the  Proph- 
ets," by  the  late  Dr.  A.  F.  Kirkpatrick. 

The  will  of  God,  as  revealed  by  these  forth- 
tellers,  "  by  divers  portions  and  in  divers 
manners,"  contained  at  least  three  vast  and 
distinctive  spiritual  truths,  which  lay  close  to 
the  heart  of  the  entire  Old  Testament.  First, 
Jehovah  was  the  God  of  Israel.  Second,  Je- 
hovah, the  God  of  holiness,  demanded  holi- 
ness in  His  people.  Third,  since  He  did  not 
find  holiness,  He  would  redeem  His  people. 
The  last  of  these  three,  and  the  highest,  was 
purely  predictive ;  but  we  cannot  separate  the 
three,  even  in  our  thought.  Each  of  these  vast 
ideas  was  ever  present,  on  the  surface  or  in  the 
depths,  in  the  message  of  every  true  prophet, 
but  in  no  two  men  were  these  truths  mingled 
in  the  same  proportion,  or  voiced  with  the  same 
emphasis. 

In  the  pages  which  follow,  we  shall  consider 
certain  of  the  prophets  as  exponents  of  these 
three  truths,  but  we  must  never  forget  that  for 
the  sake  of  simplicity  we  may  easily  sacrifice 
the  truth.  Amos  was  the  prophet  of  holiness ; 
Hosea  was  the  prophet  of  redemption  ;  Isaiah 
was  the  prophet  of  faith;  and  Jeremiah  was 


42  THE  PROPHETS 

the  prophet  of  the  Covenant.  Yes !  But  at 
the  same  time  each  of  these  men  was  the 
prophet  of  many  other  truths.  It  is  easy  to 
say  that  Paul  was  the  apostle  of  faith ;  John, 
of  love ;  Peter,  of  hope ;  and  James,  of  good 
works.  But  such  broad  distinctions,  convenient 
as  they  may  be  to  us,  are  almost  foreign  to  the 
Bible,  and  especially  to  the  Old  Testament. 
Even  as  all  these  graces  abounded,  though  in 
varying  degrees,  in  the  life  of  each  of  the 
apostles,  so  did  all  three  of  those  divine  ideas 
abound  in  the  teaching  of  every  true  prophet, 
but  always  with  a  difference. 

VIII.     The  Predictive  Element 

If  these  sturdy  men  of  old  had  known  that 
any  person  would  ever  strive  to  explain  away 
the  predictive  element  in  their  work,  they 
would  have  been  astounded.  Fulfillment  of 
prediction,  as  we  have  seen,  was  one  of  their 
divine  credentials,  and  almost  without  excep- 
tion they  expressly  claimed  to  tell  the  will  of 
God  about  things  as  yet  not  seen.  If  this 
claim  was  a  mistake,  not  to  use  a  blacker  word, 
these  men  were  false.  Listen  to  Amos :  "  Surely 
the  Lord  Jehovah  will  do  nothing,  except  He 
reveal  His  secret  unto  His  servants  the  proph- 
ets."    The  immediate  purpose  of  Jehovah  in 


MEN  GREATER  THAN  KINGS         43 

revealing  His  will  concerning  the  future  was 
ever  to  influence  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the 
prophet's  hearers,  but  it  would  be  folly  to  limit 
any  prediction  to  its  immediate  purpose. 

Some  of  these  predictions,  such  as  Micah's 
pointing  to  Bethlehem  as  the  birthplace  of  the 
Redeemer,  were  concrete  and  specific;  others, 
such  as  Amos's  portrayal  of  doom  upon  Israel, 
were  more  general.  As  a  rule  with  many  ex- 
ceptions, predictions  were  more  specific  and 
definite  when  uttered  near  the  hour  of  fulfill- 
ment. For  convenience  we  may  group  pre- 
dictions into  three  classes:  first,  those  which 
foretold  the  impending  doom  of  the  chosen 
people ;  second,  those  which  foretold  their  sub- 
sequent restoration;  and  third,  those  which 
foretold  the  ultimate  blessedness  of  the  Messi- 
anic kingdom,  "which  was  to  be  at  once  the 
consummation  of  the  past,  and  the  starting 
point  of  the  future."  Only  through  this  Mes- 
siah could  an  unholy  people  become  the  chil- 
dren of  the  holy  God  of  the  Covenant. 

The  study  of  the  fulfillment  of  predictions  is 
too  large  a  task  and  too  difficult  for  such  a 
series  as  this.  Such  difficulty  springs  from 
three  facts.  First,  a  single  prediction  might 
refer  immediately  to  a  passing  event,  and  more 
remotely  to  a  similar  but  vastly  more  impor- 


44  THE  PROPHETS 

tant  event  in  the  future.  For  example,  the 
Book  of  Isaiah  portrayed  the  Servant  of  Je- 
hovah, a  figure  which  in  some  cases  pointed 
to  Israel  and  at  the  same  time  to  the  Messiah. 
In  the  Master's  words  in  the  latter  portion  of 
the  Gospel  according  to  Matthew,  who  can  put 
his  finger  upon  this  passage  or  upon  that,  and 
say  for  certain  whether  the  Master  was  speak- 
ing about  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  about  the  end 
of  the  age,  or  about  both  events  ? 

Almost  equally  baffling  is  the  fact  that  many 
a  prediction  was  conditional,  and  that  the  con- 
dition might  not  appear  on  the  surface.  This 
fact  appears  from  Jeremiah  xviii.  1-10,  where 
one  should  note  that  mighty,  little  word,  "  if." 
If  the  nation  concerning  which  God  had  spoken 
evil  turned  from  their  evil,  He  would  repent  of 
the  evil  that  He  had  thought  to  do  unto  them. 
If  the  nation  concerning  which  He  had  spoken 
good  turned  and  did  evil  in  His  sight,  He 
would  repent  of  the  good.  For  example,  think 
of  Jonah's  prediction  at  Nineveh;  if  we  did 
not  know  the  sequel,  how  far  could  we  inter- 
pret the  prediction  ?  Think  of  many  a  bright 
promise  which  never  yet  has  seen  its  fulfill- 
ment ;  how  do  we  know  whether  or  not  it  may 
have  tarried  in  vain  for  obedience  to  its  im- 
plied condition  ?     This  baffling  fact  should  not 


MEN  GREATEE  THAN  KINGS         45 

deter  us  from  reading  the  Old  Testament  in 
the  light  of  the  New,  but  it  should  increase  our 
caution  and  our  humility  when  we  attempt  to  in- 
terpret passing  events  in  the  light  of  prophecy. 
The  third  disconcerting  fact  about  Old  Tes- 
tament predictions  is  that  many  of  them  yet 
await  their  fulfillment.  Here  again,  wise  men 
differ ;  but  we  who  love  the  Lord  will  be  slow 
to  believe  that  the  Gospel  according  to  Isaiah 
referred  solely  to  days  long  since  gone  by  ;  we 
prefer  rather  to  look  forward  to  the  fulfillment 
on  earth  and  in  heaven  of  those  blessed  prom- 
ises which  from  age  to  age  keep  unfolding, 
even  as  the  seed  develops  into  the  rose-bush, 
and  the  bush  brings  forth  the  bud,  and  the 
bud  unfolds  into  the  perfect  bloom.  "  We  see 
not  yet  all  things    .    .    .    but  we  see  Jesus." 

IX.     Their  Permanent  Value 

Why  does  Paul  say  that  the  man  of  God 
who  would  be  complete,  furnished  unto  every 
good  work,  should  know  the  ancient  Scriptures, 
of  which  these  prophecies  form  a  large  por- 
tion? Because  these  messages  were  inspired; 
because  these  holy  men  of  God  spake  and  wrote 
as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  If 
we  wish  to  learn  God's  idea  of  a  man,  we  shall 
do  well  to  look  long  and  closely  at  these  seers 


46  THE  PROPHETS 

who  largely  resembled  the  one  perfect  Man. 
In  any  one  of  them,  as  in  few  men  else,  we  can 
behold  the  power  of  an  inspired  personality, 
and  at  the  same  time  feel  the  attraction  of  a 
most  unique  and  pleasing  individuality.  We 
moderns  are  sadly  in  need  of  such  a  hero  as 
Elijah  or  Hosea. 

We  should  go  to  these  books  often,  and  tarry 
with  them  long,  because  of  the  truth  which 
they  reveal.  The  external  garb  of  the  truth 
varies  from  age  to  age,  but  the  truth  itself  is 
eternal.  The  truth  in  the  prophets,  with  their 
tremendous  emphasis  upon  righteousness,  and 
with  their  ceaseless  unveiling  of  man's  only 
ground  for  hope,  even  the  Promise,  as  fulfilled 
in  the  Christ, — this  truth,  presented  in  count- 
less hues,  the  world  should  not  willingly  let 
die.  The  great  reason,  after  all,  why  we  should 
study  the  prophets  is  because  they  prepared 
the  way  for  the  coming  of  Christ.  Here  again, 
one  can  only  quote  from  Kirkpatrick,  from 
whom  are  taken  more  than  a  few  suggestions 
in  this  chapter. 

"Old  Testament  prophecy  is  still  a  living 
message  for  the  Christian  Church.  Its  fulfill- 
ment does  not  mean  that  its  use  is  at  an  end, 
so  that  it  may  be  laid  on  one  side,  because  its 
purpose  and  significance  are  exhausted.     Nor 


MEN  GEEATEE  THAN  KINGS         47 

does  it  mean  that  for  us  the  sole  use  of  proph- 
ecy is  as  one  of  the  credentials  which  attest 
Christ's  mission.  It  is  this,  and  as  such  it 
would  claim  our  reverent  study ;  but  it  is  far 
more.  It  is  not  fulfilled  and  exhausted,  but 
fulfilled  and  illuminated,  and  we  must  read  it 
in  the  light  of  that  illumination.  Thence  we 
may  derive  comfort  and  courage,  as  we  watch 
the  methods  by  which  God  works  out  His  pur- 
poses, educates  the  world,  establishes  His  king- 
dom in  it.  There  we  may  see  that  He  is 
indeed  the  living  God,  "Who  rules  in  the  affairs 
of  men :  '  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega,  the  Lord 
God,  which  is  and  which  was,  and  which  is  to 
come,  the  All-Sovereign.' " 

We  who  preach  should  live  close  to  these 
prophets,  not  only  that  we  may  introduce  them 
to  the  good  folk  whom  we  teach,  but  that  we 
may  learn  through  them  the  secret  by  which 
we  too  may  become  forth-tellers  of  truth 
divine.  "We  are  not  inspired  as  they  were, 
and  so  we  cannot  predict  things  hidden  from 
the  eyes  of  men  in  the  pew,  but  we  also  are 
"citizens  with  a  message,"  called  to  speak  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  woe  be  to  us  if  we 
prove  unworthy  of  our  prophetic  heritage! 
That  was  an  illuminating  word  spoken  by  a 
seminary  student  in  Pittsburgh,  when  he  was 


48  THE  PROPHETS 

asked  why  he  worshipped  regularly  in  the 
Eighth  Church,  of  which  Dr.  W.  I.  Wishart  is 
pastor.  "  I  go  to  hear  him  because  he  always 
has  a  message  for  me  from  God."  What  a 
commentary  on  the  preaching  of  some  of  us 
whom  he  did  not  go  to  hear ! 

By  inspiration  each  prophet  delivered  his 
message  directly  to  the  men  before  him.  He 
was  dealing  with  truth  which  changed,  only  in 
the  sense  that  it  unfolded  more  and  more  from 
age  to  age,  but  from  the  vast  world  of  truth 
he  chose  such  portions  as  his  hearers  needed, 
and  on  the  basis  of  that  truth  he  demanded 
an  immediate  verdict  against  sin,  and  in  favour 
of  righteousness.  His  message  was  timely,  be- 
cause it  voiced  eternal  truth  in  a  way  which 
followed  the  line  of  least  resistance  into  the 
hearts  and  consciences  of  all  that  heard.  It  is 
small  wonder,  then,  that  the  prophet  knew  the 
fellowship  of  Christ's  sufferings,  and  that  he 
went  to  his  death  as  a  martyr  for  eternal  truth. 
"  "Who  follows  in  his  train  ?  " 

If  the  prophets  had  been  merely  men  of 
their  day,  and  nothing  more,  we  should  never 
have  known  their  names.  They  owe  the  im- 
mortality of  their  writings  to  the  same  Lord 
to  "Whom  they  owe  the  immortality  of  their 
souls.     In  God's  grace  they  bore  no  little  part 


MEN  GREATER  THAN  KINGS  49 

in  preparing  the  Church  for  the  coming  of  her 
Lord.  And  if  we  are  worthy  to  follow  them 
even  from  afar,  while  we  shall  be  careful  to 
speak  in  a  tongue  which  the  children  of  our 
own  age  can  understand,  we  shall  be  vastly 
more  anxious  to  turn  men's  gaze  ever  towards 
Him,  Who  is  the  end  of  prophecy  as  well  as 
its  beginning,  "  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and 
forever." 


50 


ELIJAH 


Six  Elements  of  Peophecy0 

Illustrated  in  the  Life  of  Elijah. 


n 

ELIJAH :  THE  PEOPHET  OP  FIEE 

THE  title  above  is  taken  from  the  Book 
of  Ecclesiasticus,  where  it  is  applied 
to  this  man  of  God.  Nothing  could 
more  fitly  describe  the  character  and  the  work 
of  Elijah,  as  the  John  the  Baptist  of  the  Old 
Testament.  Fire  is  a  symbol  of  God's  wrath 
against  sin,  and  of  His  blessing  upon  righteous- 
ness. Such  is  the  heart  of  the  message  of 
Elijah,  a  message  delivered  to  us  not  so  much 
in  his  words,  as  in  the  record  of  his  life  and  of 
his  deeds.  Unlike  the  other  seers  who  are  to 
pass  before  us,  this  man  was  moved  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  write  no  book ;  but  fortunately 
we  know  him  so  well  that  his  life  itself  is  a 
searching  prophetic  message. 

When  Elijah  began  to  prophesy  in  the  North- 
ern Kingdom,  in  the  ninth  century  before 
Christ,  the  fires  of  pure  religion  were  almost 
dead  upon  the  altars  of  the  nation  and  of  its 
homes.  After  the  Ten  Tribes  had  seceded  and 
had  established  their  capital  at  Samaria,  they 
51 


52  ELIJAH 

had  set  up  their  high  places  at  Dan  and  at 
Bethel,  and  had  begun  to  worship  Jehovah  by 
means  of  idols.  Ere  long  they  had  come  to 
think  more  of  their  idols  than  of  their  God,  and 
had  begun  to  use  them  in  the  worship  of  alien 
deities.  They  had  swiftly  deteriorated  in  moral 
ideals  and  actions,  for  idolatry  ever  saps  spiritual 
strength.  Surely  the  land  was  in  need  of  a 
prophet ! 

When  Elijah  began  his  work  of  restoration, 
Ahab  and  Jezebel  were  on  the  throne  ;  perhaps 
it  would  be  more  correct  to  give  Jezebel  the 
prior  mention,  for  she  was  ever  more  than  her 
husband.  Ahab  was  to  be  guilty  of  sins  many 
and  black,  but  in  nothing  could  he  offend 
Jehovah  more  than  in  wedding  this  blood- 
thirsty daughter  of  Ethbaal,  King  of  Tyre,  who 
had  murdered  his  predecessor,  that  he  might 
usurp  the  throne.  Jezebel  united  in  herself  all 
the  evil  traits  of  a  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  and  of 
a  Lady  Macbeth.  The  new  queen  did  not 
abandon  her  devotion  to  Baal.  Not  content 
with  knowing  that  marriage  between  two  royal 
houses  betokened  a  covenant  between  their  pre- 
siding deities,  she  at  once  inaugurated  an  adroit 
campaign  to  supplant  the  simple  and  spiritual 
forms  of  the  worship  of  Jehovah  by  the  foul 
and  cruel  rites  of  the  worship  of  Baal. 


THE  PEOPHET  OF  FIKE  53 

King  Ahab  was  almost  powerless  in  the 
hands  of  his  queen.  If  he  could  have  chosen  an 
equally  strong  and  gifted  wife,  as  devoted  to 
Jehovah  as  Jezebel  was  to  Baal,  he  might  have 
hearkened  to  Elijah,  and  have  become  a  power 
for  righteousness.  Apart  from  his  religious 
policy,  Ahab  was  a  successful  ruler  :  his  reign 
as  a  whole  was  marked  by  unprecedented  pros- 
perity ;  he  increased  the  commerce  of  the  land 
and  entered  upon  an  extensive  program  of 
internal  improvements  ;  and  he  was  anxious  that 
his  tiny  kingdom  should  take  its  place  among 
the  world  powers.  For  all  of  this  the  world 
would  acclaim  him  as  a  ruler  wise  and  strong, 
but  through  Elijah  God  pronounced  judgment 
against  a  king  who  would  try  to  serve  both 
Jehovah  and  Baal,  a  king  who  would  recognize 
Jehovah  in  the  names  given  to  his  children,  and 
who  at  the  same  time  would  countenance  the 
queen  in  her  incessant  attempts  to  substitute 
Baal  as  the  supreme  deity  in  Israel. 

I.     Kindling  the  Flame  in  the  Prophet's 
Heart 

(The  Providential  Element  in  Prophecy) 

Before  Elijah  could  become  God's  agent  in 
kindling  the  flame  on  the  altar  of  his  nation, 
and  in  the  homes  of  his  people,  he  needed  to 
pass  through  a  deep  spiritual  experience,  which 


64  ELIJAH 

came  to  him  in  a  fashion  as  unpleasant  as  it 
was  unexpected.  He  went  to  Ahab  with  a  mes- 
sage of  judgment :  "  As  Jehovah,  the  God  of 
Israel,  liveth,  before  Whom  I  stand,  there  shall 
not  be  dew  nor  rain  these  years,  but  according 
to  my  word."  Then  he  took  refuge  by  the 
lonely  brook,  Cherith,  where  he  depended  solely 
upon  God  for  food  and  drink.  The  drought  be- 
gan. While  it  lasted  Ahab  and  Jezebel  could 
live  upon  past  supplies  or  upon  imports,  but  the 
seer,  whom  they  must  have  pitied  because  he 
had  not  where  to  lay  his  head,  was  supplied  by 
the  ravens  with  bread  and  flesh,  night  and 
morning.  Thus  he  must  have  learned  more 
deeply  that  truth  which  is  the  heart  of  the 
prophetic  ministry, — absolute  dependence  upon 
God.  "  The  secret  of  the  JLord  is  with  them 
that  fear  Him.'" 

God  cares  for  the  bodily  needs  of  His  serv- 
ants until  their  work  on  earth  is  done,  and 
sometimes  He  employs  strange  means.  Modern 
thinkers  who  try  to  explain  away  all  that  is  un- 
usual, not  to  say  miraculous,  in  the  Bible,  and 
who  scoff  at  the  record  that  a  man  in  hiding 
was  fed  by  dumb  ravens,  should  send  to  the 
China  Inland  Mission  for  a  leaflet  telling  how 
in  recent  years  a  native  worker,  in  that  land 
where  famine  is  all  too  frequent,  was  fed  in  al- 


THE  PEOPHET  OF  FIRE  55 

most  the  same  manner  as  Elijah,  and  doubtless 
with  the  same  blessed  results.  God  in  His 
providence  is  ever  free  to  employ  any  means  to 
care  for  His  children,  and  thus  to  deepen  in 
their  hearts  the  sense  of  absolute  dependence. 

A  spiritual  experience  need  not  last  after  its 
lesson  has  been  learned.  Elijah  needed  also  to 
learn  deeper  sympathy  with  suffering  mankind ; 
and  so  when  the  brook  dried  up,  he  was  led  by 
the  Spirit  to  Zarephath,  a  town  near  the  birth- 
place of  Jezebel ;  and  among  those  people  who 
worshipped  another  deity,  he  lived  in  the  house 
of  a  widow  almost  as  poor  as  himself.  By 
accepting  her  hospitality  he  gave  her  the  joy  of 
those  who  entertain  angels  unawares :  he 
called  forth  her  faith  in  securing  the  food  for 
her  unexpected  guest ;  and  a  little  later  he  re- 
stored to  her  the  son  who  was  the  pride  of  her 
heart.  But  great  as  was  the  blessing  to  the 
widow,  it  was  scarcely  to  be  compared  with 
the  blessing  to  the  prophet,  for  he  learned  to 
sympathize  most  deeply  with  suffering  man- 
kind. 

At  last  the  flame  was  fully  kindled  in  the 
prophet's  heart.  By  simple  human  experiences 
he  had  learned  more  fully  to  depend  upon 
Jehovah,  and  to  sympathize  with  the  suffering 
poor.      Without  these  two   lessons   he  could 


56  ELIJAH 

never  have  gone  forward  as  the  prophet  of  fire. 
If  he  had  never  slept  and  awaked  by  Cherith's 
quiet  stream,  he  could  never  have  stood  and 
conquered  on  Carmel's  wooded  slope.  If  he 
had  never  lived  as  a  pensioner  on  the  bounty 
of  that  poor  widow  in  Zarephath,  he  could 
never  have  defied  the  king  at  Naboth's  vine- 
yard. In  preparing  a  prophet  for  his  mighty 
tasks,  providence  makes  no  blunders. 

"  So,  take  and  use  thy  work, 
Amend  what  flaws  may  lurk, 
"What  strain  o'  the  stuff,  what  warpiugs  past 
the  aim  ! 
My  times  be  in  Thy  hand  ! 
Perfect  the  work  as  planned  ! 
Let  age  approve  of  youth,  and  death  com- 
plete the  same  I" 

II.    Kindling  the  Flame  on  the  Nations 
Altar 

(The  Miraculous  Element  in  Prophecy) 

At  last  the  prophet  was  ready  for  his  work, 
and  that  work  was  enough  to  appall  the  stoutest 
heart.  In  the  name  of  God  he  must  defy  Ahab 
and  Jezebel,  together  with  all  of  her  imported 
priests  of  Baal,  and  restore  in  the  land  the 
worship  of  the  God  of  Israel.  The  record  of 
the  contest  which  ensued  on  Mount  Carmel  is 
one  of  the  most  majestic  narratives  in  the  Bible 


THE  PEOPHET  OF  FIRE 


67 


(1  Kings  xviii.).  In  the  most  graphic  form  this 
contest  illustrates  the  endless  conflict  between 
truth  and  error,  as  well  as  the  ultimate  triumph  \ 
of  the  truth.  It  is  interesting  to  know  that 
tradition  ascribes  this  most  spectacular  scene  in 
the  life  of  our  most  spectacular  prophet  to  the 
twentieth  day  of  July. 

Such  details  must  never  for  an  instant  ob- 
scure the  mighty  issues  at  stake  on  this  contest. 
Carmel  was  a  test  of  Jehovah's  power  and  of 
His  right  to  the  exclusive  rule  in  Israel,  as  well 
as  of  Elijah's  prophetic  mission  and  of  his  right 
to  represent  Jehovah.  It  required  rare  courage 
for  him  to  go  out  to  meet  the  king ;  but  when 
did  a  true  prophet  ever  know  the  name  of  fear  ? 
He  was  warned  by  Obadiah,  a  good  man  who 
thought  discretion  the  better  part  of  valour, 
but  on  he  went.  Ahab  met  him  with  a  bitter 
reproach,  "  Is  it  thou,  thou  troubler  of  Israel  ?  " 
but  he  replied  that  the  king  himself,  by  en- 
couraging the  nation  to  be  untrue,  had  troubled 
Israel ;  and  in  proof  he  challenged  the  king  to 
arrange  a  contest  between  the  imported  priests  :• 
of  Baal,  and  Elijah  alone  as  the  representative 
of  Jehovah.  The  king  assented,  as  he  might 
not  have  done  if  he  had  first  consulted  his  wily 
queen. 

Elijah's  proposition  was  most  daring,  for  if 


^J 


58  ELIJAH 

he  had  not  succeeded,  his  cause  would  have 
failed,  and  he  himself  would  quickly  have 
died ;  but  he  was  determined  at  every  cost  to 
force  a  definite  decision  for  Jehovah  ;  and  he 
knew  that  Jehovah  never  fails.  In  proposing 
the  terms  to  govern  this  contest,  Elijah  showed 
that  he  was  what  we  moderns  should  style  a 
true  sportsman.  While  most  careful  to  guard 
against  chance  for  fraud  or  deception,  he  was 
most  generous  to  his  hated  foes :  he  gave  them 
the  advantage  of  numbers,  of  the  first  trial,  and 
of  the  time  of  day.  He  carefully  prescribed  a 
contest  which  would  be  favourable  to  the  claims 
of  Baal,  the  god  of  fire.  "  The  god  that  an- 
swereth  by  fire,  let  him  be  god."  In  all  of 
this,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  prophet  was 
following  the  guidance  of  Jehovah. 

The  first  trial  began  early  in  the  morning, 
and  proceeded  until  midday.  The  devotees  of 
Baal  worshipped  the  rising  sun,  but  with  all 
their  gorgeous  ritual,  they  could  bring  down 
no  fire  to  consume  the  waiting  sacrifice.  At 
noon  Elijah  mocked  them :  "  Cry  aloud ;  for 
he  is  a  god  ;  either  he  is  musing  or  he  is  gone 
aside,  or  he  is  on  a  journey,  or  perad  venture 
he  sleepeth,  and  must  be  awaked ! "  "With 
such  sarcastic  taunts  ringing  in  their  ears,  and 
with  all  the  people  listening  to  these  tokens  of 


THE  PROPHET  OF  FIRE  59 

their  failure,  it  is  small  wonder  that  the  priests 
"  cried  aloud,  and  cut  themselves  with  knives  and 
lances,  till  the  blood  gushed  out  upon  them." 
But  all  their  frantic  efforts  were  in  vain,  and 
after  consuming  the  remainder  of  the  day  in 
hopeless  pleadings  for  fire  from  the  god  of  fire, 
they  were  forced  tacitly  to  admit  their  failure. 
They  could  only  hope  that  their  foe  would  like- 
wise fail. 

Elijah  knew  that  he  would  not  fail.  In 
every  step  he  showed  his  faith.  The  day  was 
already  far  spent,  but  there  was  ample  time  for 
Jehovah  to  work.  The  prophet  took  every 
precaution,  so  that  the  people  might  not  later 
ascribe  his  victory  to  fraud.  He  engaged  in 
no  lengthy  ritual,  but  uttered  a  prayer  both 
simple  and  brief ;  then  the  fire  of  Jehovah  fell, 
and  consumed  the  burnt  offering,  together  with 
all  that  was  near.  Never  was  there  a  clearer 
and  a  more  striking  demonstration  of  the  power 
of  Jehovah,  and  of  His  blessing  upon  one  of 
His  prophets. 

The  immediate  effect  of  this  victory  was 
most  impressive.  All  day  long  the  people  had 
been  watching  the  contest,  with  growing  in- 
tensity ;  they  had  heard  the  sarcastic  taunts  of 
Elijah, — which  appear  to  us  to  have  been  too 
strong,  until  we  remember  what  a  reflex  in- 


60  ELIJAH 

fluence  they  must  have  had  upon  the  people; 
and  when  at  last  they  saw  the  end,  they  fell 
upon  their  faces,  and  cried  out,  "  Jehovah,  He 
is  God !  Jehovah,  He  is  God  !  " — words  which 
in  the  original  sound  strangely  like  the  name 
of  Elijah.  Then  the  prophet  ordered  the 
slaughter  of  the  priests  of  Baal.  Here  again 
our  delicate  sensibilities  are  shocked,  until  we 
remember  that  these  men  were  almost  as  guilty 
of  treachery  as  alien  spies  in  America  could  be 
to-day.  When  those  priests  had  followed  Jeze- 
bel into  the  land,  in  order  to  lead  the  people  to 
change  their  religion,  they  must  have  known 
that  failure  would  be  followed  by  death.  If 
they  had  been  permitted  to  live  on  in  the  land, 
the  victory  of  Elijah  would  have  been  a  mock- 
ery. It  was  better  that  they  should  die  than 
that  the  nation  through  them  should  perish. 

The  ultimate  effect  of  the  victory  on  Carmel 
was  greater  by  far  than  appeared  on  the  sur- 
face. First  impressions,  it  is  true,  quickly  be- 
gan to  fade  from  the  faces  of  that  fickle  folk ; 
but  the  truth  continued  its  silent  work  in  their 
hearts ;  and  "  Truthe  will  delivre,  hit  is  no 
drede."  Never  again  would  Elijah  be  so  per- 
secuted for  righteousness'  sake,  and  never  more 
would  prophet  need  to  remind  the  people  that 
Jehovah  was  at  least  nominally  the  God  of 


THE  PEOPHET  OF  FIKE  61 

i 
Israel.     After  the  victory  on  Carmel,  idolatry 

did  not  cease,  and  from  time  to  time  large 
numbers  of  the  people  worshipped  other  gods, 
but  as  a  whole  Israel  was  committed  hence- 
forth to  the  service  of  Jehovah;  no  longer 
could  she  go  limping  between  the  two  sides  ; — 
and  all  because  of  the  faith  of  Elijah.  "  This 
is  the  victory  which  overcometh  the  world, 
even  our  faith." 

III.     The  Fire  Burns  Low  in  the  Pi'ophetfs 

Heart 

(The  Human  Element  in  Prophecy) 

"  The  human  heart  is  strange  above  all 
things."  After  the  triumph  on  Mount  Carmel 
we  might  well  expect  Elijah  to  rejoice,  but 
soon  we  behold  him  struggling  with  himself  in 
the  darkest  day  of  his  life.  Forced  to  flee 
from  the  fury  of  that  tigress  on  the  throne,  he 
had  taken  refuge  in  Judah,  and  leaving  his 
servant,  had  gone  a  day's  journey  into  the  wil- 
derness, where  we  see  him  sitting  under  a 
juniper  tree,  and  requesting  for  himself  that 
he  might  die.  Who  would  expect  ever  to  see 
Elijah  downcast  ?  Like  Moses  and  Peter  and 
many  another  strong  man,  he  failed  in  his 
strongest  point.  "  Elias  was  a  man  subject  to 
like  passions  as  we  are." 


62  ELIJAH 

The  causes  of  his  despair  were  cumulative  -. 
his  nerves  had  been  subject  to  a  mighty  strain, 
prolonged  through  the  hours  of  a  long,  long 
day,  and  when  the  period  of  inactivity  came, 
he  could  not  easily  relax.  After  his  spectacu- 
lar success,  reaching  its  climax  when  the  shouts 
of  his  people  rang  in  his  ears,  came  the  reac- 
tion, when  he  felt  that  he  was  alone  in  the 
world,  alone  among  the  prophets,  alone  among 
the  people,  and  worst  of  all,  alone  against 
Jezebel.  Like  an  echo  of  despair,  which  might 
soon  sink  into  remorse,  sounds  out  this  dire 
lament,  "Alone!"  He  felt,  too,  that  he  had 
failed :  immediate  results  from  his  triumph  had 
apparently  flitted  away  with  the  rising  of  the 
morrow's  sun ;  and  the  permanent  results  had 
not  yet  begun  to  appear.  The  people  who  had 
shouted  for  Jehovah  on  Carmel  had  not  dared 
to  fight  for  Him  at  Jezreel,  and  the  prophet 
must  have  wondered  whether  it  had  been 
worth  his  while  to  hazard  his  life  for  such  a 
fickle  folk. 

Equally  interesting  and  instructive  were  the 
ways  in  which  the  Heavenly  Father  soothed 
the  heart  of  this  downcast  child.  "  Like  as 
one  whom  his  mother  comforteth,  so  will  I 
comfort  you."  As  the  mother  of  a  petulant 
child  gives  first  heed  to  the  little  body,  so  the 


THE  PROPHET  OF  FIEE 


63 


Cumulative  Causes  of  Despair. 

Illustrated  in  Elijah. 


(Suggestion  ;  Prepare  two  similar  charts,  one  showing 
the  causes  of  John  the  Baptist's  despair ;  the  othei 
showing  the  cure  of  Elijah's  despair.) 


64  ELIJAH 

Lord  soothed  Elijah  to  sleep;  and  when  he 
awoke,  refreshed  and  hungry,  the  Lord  sent  an 
angel  to  feed  him,  and  then  despatched  him  on 
a  pilgrimage,  that  he  might  revive  his  memory 
of  former  days,  and  feel  the  soothing  touch  of 
nature.  On  Mount  Horeb  the  prophet  heard 
the  still,  small  voice  of  Jehovah,  as  perhaps  he 
had  never  heard  it  before,  and  he  caught  a 
vision  of  the  forces  that  were  upon  the  side  of 
Jehovah,  even  seven  thousand  that  would  never 
bow  the  knee  to  Baal.  He  learned,  too,  that 
God  had  not  failed,  for  victory  was  coming, 
and  that  he  himself  was  to  be  no  small  factor 
in  the  conquest.  Surely  God's  comfort,  as  the 
cure  for  man's  despondency,  is  cumulative ! 

How  human,  after  all,  these  prophets  must 
have  been  !  How  typical  the  causes  of  Elijah's 
despair,  and  the  ways  in  which  the  Heavenly 
Father  quieted  the  heart  of  this  troubled  child  ! 
Elijah  must  have  been  tempted  in  all  points 
like  as  we  are,  and  not  without  sin.  Instead 
of  thinking  of  him  and  his  successors  as  dim, 
shadowy  figures  stalking  before  us  out  of  the 
misty  past,  let  us  know  them  as  they  really 
were,  men  like  ourselves,  but  larger.  With 
Paul  they  could  say,  "  We  have  this  treasure 
in  earthen  vessels."  When  they  became  proph- 
ets, they  did  not  cease  to  be  men. 


THE  PEOPHET  OF  FIEE  66 

TV.     Kindling  the  Royal  Conscience 

(The  Ethical  Element  in  Prophecy) 

All  of  the  prophets  were  preachers  of  right- 
eousness, and  none  more  so  than  Elijah.  Some- 
times they  appear  to  us  to  have  been  like  many- 
scholars  to-day,  who  are  so  much  concerned  about 
the  theory  of  life  that  they  give  small  thought 
to  its  practice ;  but  nothing  could  be  farther 
from  the  truth  about  the  prophets.  They  arose 
to  reveal  the  spiritual  aspects  of  the  Law  of 
righteousness,  as  given  through  Moses ;  to 
show  how  it  was  being  trampled  under  the  feet 
of  those  who  called  themselves  the  children  of 
God  ;  and  how  such  sin  could  not  escape  God's 
righteous  judgment.  They  spoke  primarily  to 
the  conscience  of  the  nation,  but  they  had  an 
ethical  message  for  the  individual,  too,  as  we 
shall  soon  see,  when  Elijah  faces  the  king  in 
Naboth's  vineyard. 

After  three  years  of  successful  war  against 
his  rival,  Benhadad,  King  of  Syria,  Ahab  be- 
came arrogant,  and  yielded  to  covetousness, 
that  ever-present  temptation  of  kings.  In  an 
age  when  the  rich  were  beginning  to  think  of 
ivory  palaces,  Ahab  longed  to  extend  his  gar- 
dens so  as  to  include  the  petty  vineyard  of  his 
humble  neighbour  ;  and  to  his  credit  be  it  told, 
he  offered  to  buy  this  vineyard,  or  to  give  a 


66  ELIJAH 

better  one  in  its  stead.  But  Naboth,  pious  and 
sentimental,  refused  to  part  with  his  ancestral 
heritage,  for  he  knew  that  the  law  of  God  was 
on  his  side,  even  against  his  king.  Ahab 
sulked,  until  he  aroused  the  scorn  of  Jezebel, 
who  reminds  one  here  of  Lady  Macbeth — "  In- 
firm of  purpose,  give  me  the  dagger  !  "  But 
Lady  Macbeth  was  plotting  for  a  throne ; 
Queen  Jezebel,  for  a  bit  of  ground ! 

In  rebuking  the  greed  of  the  royal  pair,  as 
well  as  the  perjury  and  the  murder  which  it 
caused,  Elijah  spoke  as  "  the  personified  con- 
science of  the  nation,"  and  heaped  upon  the 
king's  head  such  burning  coals  that  he  re- 
pented, and  his  sentence  of  doom  was  sus- 
pended. Never  again  would  Ahab  behold  the 
face  of  the  prophet  whom  he  considered  his 
tormentor  and  his  enemy  ;  the  Spirit  no  more 
would  strive  with  this  king  who  was  weak 
rather  than  deliberately  wicked,  a  tool  in  the 
hands  of  a  great,  bad  queen.  In  all  of  this  we 
behold  the  high  moral  standards  of  the  Old 
Testament  propheis,  of  whom  in  a  sense  Elijah 
was  one  of  the  first,  and  one  of  the  greatest. 

V.     Passing  the  Torch  to  Another  Prophet 
(The  Progressive  Element  in  Prophecy) 

The  figure  suggested  in  this  popular  sub- 
title is  taken  from  the  Greek  games,  where 


THE  PEOPHET  OF  FIKE  67 

teams  of  runners  contested  for  a  prize,  each 
team  forming  a  relay  and  passing  the  burning 
torch  from  one  man  to  another  until  the  last 
reached  the  goal ;  the  winning  team  was  not 
merely  the  quickest  in  completing  the  course, 
but  that  which  kept  its  torch  alive.  So  we 
must  think  of  these  men  of  old,  not  as  inde- 
pendent of  each  other,  but  as  bound  together 
in  closest  unity  by  their  one  calling  and  by 
their  pursuit  of  that  goal  towards  which  all  the 
Old  Testament  saints  were  striving.  From  age 
to  age,  one  after  another  finished  his  course 
and  dropped  out  to  await  his  reward,  but  not 
until  he  had  passed  on  to  another  the  truth 
which  must  never  touch  the  ground,  or  cease  to 
shine.  Elijah  must  give  way  to  Elisha.  "  He 
must  increase,  but  I  must  decrease." 

To  succeed  Elijah  required  no  little  strength 
of  heart  and  will.  The  prophet  of  fire  never 
taught  us  to  use  every  wile  in  inveigling  callow 
youths  to  enter  the  sacred  ministry.  Instead 
of  pleading  with  Elisha  to  become  a  prophet, 
or  tacitly  encouraging  him  to  seek  that  high 
office,  Elijah  tested  his  spirit  by  strong  dis- 
suasion. The  young  man's  persistent  impor- 
tunity showed  that  in  him  was  the  stuff  of 
which  prophets  are  made.  He  knew  that  he 
had  been  called  from  above,  and  he  insisted 


68  ELIJAH 

that  he  must  take  the  torch  which  Elijah  was 
soon  to  give  up.  Elisha  met  the  condition  pre- 
scribed :  he  saw  the  departing  prophet,  and 
took  up  his  mantle  as  a  token  that  he  was  to 
have  the  boon  which  he  had  craved,  even  a 
double  portion  of  the  spirit  of  Elijah.  In 
modern  phrase  this  means,  not  that  he  received 
twice  as  much  of  the  Spirit's  beauty  and  power 
as  filled  the  heart  of  Elijah,  but  that  Elisha 
also  was  to  be  fitly  prepared  to  keep  the  torch 
aflame,  until  he  too  should  pass  it  on  to  another 
hand. 

VI.     The  Shining  of  a  Heavenly  Light 
(The  Eternal  Element  in  Prophecy) 

Our  study  of  Elijah  cannot  be  complete  un- 
less we  glance  at  him  on  the  Mount  of  Trans- 
figuration. "We  often  ask  ourselves  why  he, 
rather  than  one  of  the  later  prophets,  such  as 
Isaiah,  should  have  appeared  on  that  Mount. 
No  one  can  answer  our  query,  which  would  be 
futile  did  it  not  increase  our  respect  for  Elijah. 
Too  often  we  forget  that  throughout  the  history 
of  the  Northern  Kingdom  he  was  the  most  be- 
loved prophetic  hero ;  that  during  the  Paschal 
Feast  in  the  orthodox  Hebrew  home  to-day, 
the  door  is  kept  ajar  that  Elijah  may  come  in  ; 
that  at  the  christening  there  is  a  vacant  chair 
for  him ;  and  most  significant  of  all,  that  no 


THE  PEOPHET  OF  FIRE  69 

other  Old  Testament  prophet  is  mentioned  so 
often  in  the  New. 

Many  of  these  references  in  the  New  Testa* 
ment  concern  John  the  Baptist,  who  fulfilled 
such  predictions  as  that  of  Malachi :  "  Behold,  I 
will  send  you  Elijah  the  prophet,  before  the 
great  and  terrible  day  of  Jehovah  come." 
Though  separated  far  in  time,  these  two  had 
much  in  common :  each  was  a  prophet  of  fire ; 
each  lived  largely  apart  from  his  fellows ;  each 
was  garbed  in  rough  apparel ;  each  made  a 
startling  entrance  into  public  life ;  each  ex- 
celled in  simplicity,  in  strength,  in  sternness,  in 
courage,  and  in  zeal ;  each  fell  into  the  deepest 
despair ;  each  left  us  only  a  few  words,  written 
down  by  others,  for  the  man  was  ever  more 
vital  than  his  message  ;  and  each  was  a  reformer 
calling  on  his  people  to  repent  — 

"  l  All  ye  whose  hopes  rely 

On  God,   with  me  amidst  these  deserts 

mourn, 
Repent,  repent,  and  from  old  errors  turn ! > 
Only  the  echoes,  which  he  made  relent, 
Rung  from  their  flinty  caves,  l  Repent, 

Repent  \fn 

The  parallel  between  John  and  Elijah  is 
longer  still :  each  of  them  met  with  the  most 
determined  resistance  from   a  royal  pair,   of 


70  ELIJAH 

whom  the  woman  had  her  will;  and  each 
ended  his  work  before  it  was  complete,  although 
it  would  be  scarcely  correct  to  say  that  Elijah 
prepared  the  way  for  Elisha  as  John  prepared 
the  way  for  Jesus.  When  we  recall  the  Mas- 
ter's appraisal  of  John  the  Baptist,  we  must 
heighten  our  estimate  of  Elijah.  John  was  a 
prophet,  and  more  than  a  prophet ;  he  was  as 
great  as  the  greatest  of  Old  Testament  saints 
and  seers ;  and  so  we  begin  to  see  why  the 
John  of  the  Old  Testament  was  counted  worthy 
to  appear  with  Moses  on  the  Mount,  and  there 
to  represent  the  prophetic  order. 

Far  more  vital  than  our  query  why  this  par- 
ticular prophet  should  have  appeared  on  the 
Mount,  is  the  fact  that  a  prophet  appeared,  and 
that  he  spake  with  the  Lord  about  the  decease 
which  He  should  accomplish  at  Jerusalem. 
The  law  and  the  prophets  alike  most  clearly  re- 
veal their  eternal  value  when  they  come  closest 
to  the  Christ  of  the  cross.  Elijah  is  not  dead : 
his  times  have  passed  away ;  but  his  call  for 
righteousness  sounds  forth  from  age  to  age 
through  men  upon  whom  his  mantle  has  fallen. 

The  truth  which  was  in  Elijah  is  eternal,  be- 
cause it  is  the  same  truth  which  in  its  final  form 
is  in  Jesus  Christ.  In  a  word,  this  truth  is 
righteousness.     For  this  truth  the  modern  world 


THE  PEOPHET  OF  FIEE  71 

is  hungering  and  thirsting,  but  to  many  of  us 
who  prate  about  the  things  of  God,  the  world 
is  calling  in  vain.  We  have  fallen  upon  evil 
days,  when  covetousness,  which  is  idolatry,  is 
sapping  the  strength  of  many  of  us  who  style 
ourselves  children  of  God.  We  need  more  men 
of  the  spirit  and  power  of  Elijah,  the  seer  of 
righteousness,  the  prophet  of  fire. 


72 


AMOS 


TYRE 


GAZ 


DAMASCUS 


{Adapted from  Dr.  W.  W.White.) 


The  Eebukes  of  Amos. 
(Chapters  I  and  II.) 


Ill 


AMOS  :  THE  HEKDSMAN  FEOM  THE 
HILLS 

THE  prophets  lived  and  spoke  largely 
in  God's  great  out-of-doors,  and  to 
this  day  their  messages  appeal  most 
strongly  to  men  and  women  who  live  close  to 
nature.  These  messages  are  well  adapted  for 
study  at  summer  conferences,  which  are  usually 
held  in  groves,  and  often  in  the  open  air.  In 
such  a  place  as  Montreat,  for  example,  so  far  as 
natural  surroundings  are  concerned,  these  men 
would  have  felt  much  at  home,  and  on  every 
hand  they  would  have  found  illustrations  of 
their  messages  — 

"  Tongues  in  trees,    books  in  the  running 
brooks, 
Sermons  in  stones,   and  good  in  every- 
thing." 

No  other  prophet  was  more  fully  a  son  of  the 

wild  than  Amos.     He  was  a  herdsman  from 

the  hills  of  Tekoa,  a  village  five  miles  south- 

w^Bfr  of  Bethlehem.     This  region  was  known  as 

73 


74  AMOS 

a  desert,  and  was  to  be  the  scene  of  the  preach- 
ing of  John  the  Baptist,  as  well  as  of  the  temp- 
tation of  Jesus.  Tekoa  was  situated  on  a  hill, 
adapted  only  to  grazing,  and  it  seems  to  have 
been  as  forbidding  in  all  else  as  in  location. 
Moderns  would  style  it  God-forsaken.  Among 
these  rugged  hills,  where  wild  beasts  of  various 
sorts  abounded,  Amos  herded  cattle,  which  may 
have  belonged  to  another,  and  eked  out  a  nig- 
gardly living  by  pruning  sycamore  trees.  Can 
any  good  thing  come  out  of  Tekoa  ? 

Amos  was  reared  in  the  Southern  Kingdom, 
but  so  far  as  we  can  tell,  he  prophesied  only  in 
Israel.  He  seems  to  have  expected  to  end  his 
days  in  his  desert  retreat,  but  when  he  heard 
the  call  from  Jehovah  to  prophesy  in  Bethel> 
he  bore  with  him  all  the  courage  and  the 
strength  with  which  as  a  herdsman  he  had  res- 
cued from  the  mouth  of  a  lion  two  legs  of  a 
calf  or  a  piece  of  an  ear.  Like  Moses,  he  had 
lived  so  long  with  nature  that  he  had  acquired 
something  of  her  simplicity.  In  strength  and 
in  vividness  his  writings  are  second  only  to 
those  of  Isaiah.  The  style  of  the  Book  of  Amos 
"  preserves  all  the  effects  of  pointed  and  dra- 
matic delivery,  with  that  breath  of  lyrical 
fervour  which  lends  a  special  charm  to  the  high- 
est Hebrew  oratory." 


THE  HERDSMAN  FROM  THE  HILLS    75 

A  Rugged  Seer  in  a  City  of  Culture 
Amos  went  from  Tekoa  to  prophesy  in 
Bethel  about  760  b.  c.  In  less  than  twoscore 
years  the  Northern  Kingdom  was  to  fall,  but 
just  before  the  crash  she  was  enjoying  the 
highest  prosperity  of  her  history,  partly  be- 
cause she  was  at  peace  with  the  world.  For  a 
time  Syria  was  leaving  her  alone,  and  Assyria 
had  not  yet  begun  to  seem  a  menace.  Under 
Jeroboam  II  Israel  was  increasing  yearly  in 
power  at  home  and  in  prestige  abroad,  but  the 
blessings  of  her  prosperity  were  not  equally 
distributed  or  wisely  used.  The  rich  were 
building  summer  houses,  and  winter  palaces 
of  ivory,  in  which  they  were  lolling  on  the 
silken  cushions  of  their  couches,  and  all  the 
while  they  were  exploiting  the  poor.  "  They 
have  sold  the  righteous  for  a  pair  of  shoes. 
They  pant  after  the  dust  on  the  heads  of  the 
poor."  Needless  to  say,  immorality  stalked 
everywhere,  unabashed. 

This  godless  nation  gave  a  prominent  place 
to  formal  religion,  which  centered  in  Bethel, 
the  seat  of  a  high  place,  that  is,  a  place  for 
idolatrous  worship,  other  than  Jerusalem.  In 
Bethel  and  in  Dan,  Jeroboam  I  had  set  up  the 
two  high  places,  as  the  twin  foci  round  which 
the  religious  life  of  the  Northern  Kingdom 


76  AMOS 

should  revolve,  but  for  some  reason  Bethel  had 
drawn  to  itself  many  of  the  patrons  of  Dan. 
Although  not  the  political  capital,  which  was 
located  at  Samaria,  Bethel  seems  to  have  been 
the  largest  and  strongest  city  of  the  Northern 
Kingdom.  Here  the  priests  and  the  prophets, 
as  well  as  many  others  who  craved  the  con- 
solations of  an  easy-going  faith,  must  have 
made  their  homes ;  and  to  this  popular  shrine 
still  other  hosts  must  often  have  journeyed  to 
seek  the  solace  of  a  system  which  would  not 
frown  upon  their  sins. 

The  religion  of  Bethel  was  "  baptized  pagan- 
ism." Its  worship  was  splendid,  costly,  hollow. 
Even  when  offered  in  honour  of  Jehovah  rather 
than  of  Baal,  it  was  offered  in  a  forbidden 
place  and  in  a  forbidden  manner ;  hence  it  had 
no  uplifting  effect  upon  men's  lives  ;  indeed  it 
fostered  every  sort  of  physical  and  moral  un- 
cleanness.  Surely  Bethel  needed  a  prophet, 
but  no  less  surely  was  she  unconscious  of  her 
need.  This  was  the  one  place,  nevertheless, 
where  the  prophet  could  best  speak  the  word 
of  the  Lord  to  Israel. 

Amos  seems  to  have  arrived  in  Bethel  on  a 
feast  day,  when  ritualism  and  patriotism 
united  in  ministering  to  the  emotions  of  the 
throng.     When  he  began  to  speak,  he  must 


THE  HERDSMAN  FROM  THE  HILLS    77 

have  caused  something  of  a  commotion,  for 
he  was  a  son  of  Judah,  twin  sister  to  Israel 
and  her  keenest  rival.  He  must  have  been 
garbed  in  rough  apparel,  and  have  spoken  in 
a  rugged  fashion  which  would  shock  the  del- 
icate sensibilities  of  Bethel,  whose  prophets 
were  men  of  the  mode.  Think  of  Mr.  Sunday 
in  Boston  !  How  could  such  a  herdsman  from 
the  hated  hills  of  Judah  secure  a  hearing  in 
the  religious  capital  of  Israel,  on  a  day  set 
apart  to  godless  mirth  ?  Would  he  at  once 
launch  forth  against  the  sins  of  Israel  ?  No  ! 
He  began  to  speak  in  a  vein  which  would 
have  done  credit  to  a  skilled  diplomat. 

Like  the  modern  missionary,  who  refrains 
from  unnecessarily  antagonizing  the  most  sin- 
ful hearers,  Amos  began  with  truths  which 
his  hearers  gladly  received.  He  began  by 
denouncing  the  sins  of  the  enemies  and  rivals 
of  Israel,  and  he  massed  his  material  in  the 
most  dramatic  fashion.  He  began  with  Syria, 
and  as  he  denounced  the  sins  of  one  rival  na- 
tion after  another,  he  came  closer  and  closer 
home,  until  his  hearers  must  have  been  almost 
beside  themselves  in  gloating  over  the  doom 
which  was  about  to  fall  upon  their  ancestral 
foes.  From  Syria,  that  hated  neighbour  of 
Israel,  the  prophet  turned  his  rebuke  against 


78  AMOS 

the  Philistines,  and  then  against  Tyre,  both  of 
which  were  Israel's  constant  rivals  in  com- 
merce and  frequent  foes  in  war. 

Amos  must  have  come  closer  still  to  the 
hearts  of  Israel  when  he  began  to  speak 
against  the  sins  of  the  nations  which  were 
bound  to  her  by  ties  of  blood.  A  nation's 
worst  foes  are  those  of  her  own  household. 
After  denouncing  in  righteous  wrath  the  bar- 
barous sins  of  Edom,  of  Ammon  and  of  Moab, 
the  prophet  must  have  amazed  them  all  by 
turning  his  fiery  speech  against  his  own  father- 
land, Judah,  which  was  perhaps  the  most  hated 
of  all  Israel's  foes,  because  closest  in  ties  of 
blood.  "  I  will  send  a  fire  upon  Jerusalem, 
and  it  shall  devour  the  palaces  thereof."  But 
beware,  people  of  Bethel,  before  you  receive 
this  prophet  with  open  arms,  for  he  has  not 
yet  finished  his  message  to  you  !  He  has  pic- 
tured the  sins  of  your  ancestral  foes,  and  the 
doom  which  will  soon  fall  upon  them  unless 
they  repent,  but  all  the  while  he  has  been  com- 
ing closer  and  closer  to  your  own  door,  against 
which  the  storm  is  soon  to  break.  Are  you 
certain  that  all  is  well  in  Israel  ? 

"  For  three  transgressions  of  Israel,  yea  for 
four,  I  will  not  turn  away  the  punishment 
thereof."    This  refrain,  which  had  sounded  so 


THE  HEKDSMAN  FEOM  THE  HILLS    79 

sweet  when  spoken  concerning  their  foes,  must 
have  struck  terror  to  the  hearts  of  the  people 
who  were  thus  brought  face  to  face  with  their 
own  sins.  But  what  could  they  say?  They 
had  acknowledged  the  justice  of  Jehovah  in 
punishing  their  foes,  who  had  been  guilty  most 
largely  of  the  sins  of  barbarism;  but  the 
prophet  quickly  proved  to  them  that  they  had 
been  guilty  of  the  more  dastardly  sins  of  civ- 
ilization, such  as  the  hoarding  of  ill-gotten  gain, 
the  exploiting  of  the  poor,  and  the  masking  of 
sin  under  the  garb  of  religion. 

I.     The  Sins  of  the  State 

The  first  portion  of  this  book  (Chaps,  i.-iv.  3) 
deals  most  largely  with  the  State.  After  se- 
curing his  hearing,  and  at  the  same  time  sketch- 
ing his  background,  Amos  began  to  speak  di- 
rectly to  Israel.  What  could  this  provincial 
prophet  from  the  South  know  about  statecraft 
in  the  North?  He  soon  proved  that  he  saw 
more  clearly  than  all  the  wise  men  of  Israel, 
for  beneath  the  surface  of  their  prosperity  he 
saw  such  weakness  as  invited  doom.  He  saw 
that  the  nation  could  not  long  endure,  unless  it 
ceased  to  plunder  the  worthy  poor  and  to 
befriend  the  idle  rich.  Before  the  so-called 
statesmen   had    begun  to  suspect  their  most 


80  AMOS 

deadly  menace,  this  prophet  told  them  that 
their  hollow  glory  would  soon  fade  away  at 
the  coming  of  Assyria. 

Amos  was  no  mere  politician.  He  was  a 
spiritual  statesman,  a  seer.  He  spake  only  as 
he  was  moved  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  saw 
that  the  basis  of  the  state  was  religion,  and 
that  continued  ingratitude,  such  as  Israel  had 
shown,  would  cause  withdrawal  of  Jehovah's 
favour.  The  people  of  Israel  were  assuming 
that  because  Jehovah  had  always  blessed  them, 
therefore  He  would  continue  to  bless,  but  Amos 
taught  them  that  when  Jehovah  gave  large 
blessings  to  a  nation,  He  expected  large  spir- 
itual returns,  and  that  He  would  hold  Israel  to 
a  more  strict  account  than  any  of  her  less 
favoured  rivals.  "  You  only  have  I  known  of 
all  the  families  of  the  earth ;  therefore  I  will 
visit  upon  you  all  your  iniquities." 

The  people  of  Israel  seem  to  have  thought 
that  Jehovah  was  a  sort  of  tribal  deity,  who 
would  favour  them  no  matter  what  they  might 
do,  because  they  belonged  to  Him,  just  as  many 
a  foolish  father  spares  his  wandering  boy  from 
the  discipline  which  would  recall  him  to  vir- 
tue's narrow  path.  Perhaps  they  told  them- 
selves that  they  must  be  fairly  good,  or  He 
would  not  keep  pouring  out  His  blessings  upon 


THE  HERDSMAN  FEOM  THE  HILLS    81 

them.  But  Amos  told  them  bluntly  that  Je- 
hovah had  blessed  them  bountifully  in  order 
that  they  might  live  in  righteousness,  and  that 
their  abuse  of  His  mercies  would  lead  only  to 
judgment. 

II.     The  Sins  of  the  Church 

The  second  portion  of  this  book  (Chaps,  iv. 
4-vi.)  deals  most  largely  with  religion  and  the 
Church.  Amos  would  never  have  dreamed  of 
such  a  division  as  this,  for  in  his  time  there  was 
no  such  separation  of  State  and  of  Church  as 
there  is  to-day,  but  for  convenience  we  may 
slightly  adapt  his  message  to  our  own  condi- 
tions. We  who  love  the  Church  can  under- 
stand how  the  people  of  Israel  must  have  felt 
when  this  alien  herdsman  began  to  say  harsh 
things  against  their  splendid  worship.  It  was 
bad  enough  for  him  to  find  fault  with  their 
politics,  but  for  him  to  suggest  that  their  re- 
ligion was  counterfeit,  was  more  than  they 
could  endure  from  any  man,  least  of  all  from 
such  an  unattractive  stranger. 

When  Amos  spoke  in  Bethel,  the  State 
Church  was  probably  more  popular  and  more 
prosperous  than  ever  before.  Worship  con- 
sisted most  largely  of  forms  and  ceremonies, 
some  of  which  had  doubtless  been  borrowed 


82  AMOS 

from  the  temple  worship  at  Jerusalem,  and  re- 
ligion consisted  largely  of  ritual  divorced  from 
life ;  hence  it  had  small  effect  upon  private 
morals  or  upon  public  policy.  In  the  Old  Tes- 
tament dispensation  the  true  worship  neces- 
sarily gave  a  large  place  to  ritual,  and  to  this 
Amos  could  not  but  assent,  but  to  him  ritual 
was  only  a  means  to  an  end,  which  was  right- 
eousness. 

Righteousness  is  the  dominant  note  of  the 
Book  of  Amos.  Our  prophet  would  have  been 
the  last  to  decry  obedience  to  forms  which  Je- 
hovah had  prescribed,  but  he  insisted  that  such 
forms  could  be  no  acceptable  substitute  for 
righteousness.  Jehovah  is  a  God  of  righteous- 
ness, and  He  demands  that  His  people  be  like 
Himself.  Righteousness  is  the  only  foundation 
for  Church  and  for  State,  as  well  as  for  the 
individual,  and  when  righteousness  is  lacking, 
no  amount  of  ritual  can  avert  the  judgment  of 
Jehovah. 

Judgment  is  another  key-note  of  Amos,  as  it 
is  of  Isaiah.  Once  and  again  Amos  broke  out 
against  Israel  in  this  sad  refrain — " '  Yet  have 
ye  not  returned  unto  Me,'  saith  Jehovah."  God 
had  been  good  to  them,  but  His  goodness  had 
not  led  them  to  repentance ;  He  had  sent  upon 
them  chastisements  of  various  sorts,  but  His 


THE  HERDSMAN  FEOM  THE  HILLS    83 

chastisements  had  not  softened  their  hearts. 
Since  they  persisted  in  sinning  alike  against 
their  joys  and  their  sorrows,  He  was  about  to 
visit  upon  them  more  fully  the  weight  of  their 
iniquities.  "  Prepare  to  meet  thy  God,  O  Is- 
rael." This  was  a  message  to  the  people  as  a 
whole,  and  not,  as  we  ministers  often  employ 
it,  primarily  a  call  for  individual  repentance. 

In  this  book  law  and  judgment  give  way 
here  and  there  to  the  clear  shining  of  love  and 
mercy.  Such  passages  are  few  and  short,  but 
they  are  bright.  "  Seek  ye  me,  and  ye  shall 
live."  "  Seek  good,  and  not  evil,  that  ye  may 
live."  "  Hate  the  evil,  and  love  the  good,  and 
establish  justice  in  the  gate :  it  may  be  that 
Jehovah,  the  God  of  hosts,  will  be  gracious 
unto  the  remnant  of  Israel."  But  Israel  would 
not  hearken  to  this  word  of  the  Lord,  and  so 
she  was  soon  to  fall  under  the  weight  of  her 
own  sins.  "Prepare  to  meet  thy  God,  O 
Israel ! " 

III.     Visions  of  Judgment 

The  third  portion  of  this  book  (Chaps,  vii.- 
ix.)  consists  largely  of  visions,  which  illustrated 
and  enforced  the  seer's  message  concerning 
righteousness  and  judgment  for  State  and 
Church.     The  prophets  employed  these  visions 


84  AMOS 

for  much  the  same  reason  that  the  Master  em- 
ployed parables  and  allusions  to  nature,  and 
that  we  follow  Him  from  afar  by  using  object 
lessons.  The  visions  of  Amos  impressed  the 
people  of  Israel  even  more  strongly  than  his 
direct  rebuke  of  their  sins,  for  they  permitted 
him  to  proceed  through  the  main  body  of  his 
discourse,  but  when  he  entered  upon  his  visions, 
Amaziah,  priest  of  Bethel,  soon  interrupted 
him.  For  convenience  we  shall  group  all  of 
these  visions  together,  and  look  at  them  briefly, 
before  we  consider  the  interruption. 

These  visions  would  be  clear  to  every  child 
who  listened  to  Amos,  and  they  should  be  clear 
to  us  who  know  a  little  about  sacred  history. 
The  locust  plague  is  well  known  to  readers  of 
the  Book  of  Joel.  The  vision  of  fire  is  familiar 
even  to  casual  readers  of  the  Bible.  Both  of 
these  threatened  plagues  were  averted  by  the 
prayer  of  the  prophet,  "  O  Lord  Jehovah,  for- 
give, I  beseech  thee :  how  shall  Jacob  stand  ? 
for  he  is  small."  How  galling  for  proud  Israel 
to  be  spared  because  so  small !  Perhaps  we 
may  infer  that  the  following  visions  were  to  be 
actually  fulfilled. 

"  The  Lord  stood  beside  a  wall  made  by  a 
plumb-line,  with  a  plumb-line  in  His  hand." 
He  was  testing  the  work  of  His  people,  to 


THE  HERDSMAN  FEOM  THE  HILLS    85 

show  them  that  it  was  untrue,  and  that  it  could 
not  stand.  It  was  fair  to  the  outward  view, 
but  not  pleasing  to  Him,  who  measured  all 
things  by  His  own  standard  of  righteousness. 
In  passing  we  should  note  that  this  vision 
proved  to  be  the  most  exasperating  of  all ;  it 
caused  Amaziah  the  priest  to  send  word  to 
Jeroboam  the  king,  "Amos  hath  conspired 
against  thee  in  the  midst  of  the  house  of  Is- 
rael ;  the  land  is  not  able  to  bear  his  words." 
So  far  as  we  can  judge,  the  remaining  visions 
were  not  uttered  in  Bethel;  perhaps  they 
were  first  made  known  by  the  pen  of  the 
prophet,  after  he  had  gone  back  to  Tekoa  to 
die. 

The  vision  of  the  basket  of  summer  fruits 
would  have  been  far  from  pleasing  to  Israel. 
Instead  of  being  sweet  and  luscious,  as  they 
supposed  themselves  to  be,  they  were  rotten  at 
heart,  and  they  would  soon  be  cast  aside. 
"  '  And  the  songs  of  the  temple  shall  be  wait- 
ings in  that  day,'  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah."  "  I 
will  send  a  famine  in  the  land  :  not  a  famine  of 
bread,  nor  a  thirst  for  water,  but  of  hearing 
the  words  of  Jehovah  ;  and  they  shall  wander 
from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  north  even  to  the 
east ;  they  shall  run  to  and  fro  to  seek  the  word 
of  Jehovah,  and  shall  not  find  it." 


86  AMOS 

The  last  vision  revealed  the  Lord  standing  by 
the  altar,  bidding  the  prophet  smite  the  capitals 
that  the  threshold  might  shake.  This  scene  is 
terrific.  "  Though  they  dig  into  Sheol,  thence 
shall  My  hand  take  them ;  and  though  they 
climb  up  to  heaven,  thence  will  I  bring  them 
down."  But  even  here,  judgment  is  not  far 
from  mercy.  "  I  will  sift  the  house  of  Israel 
among  all  the  nations,  like  as  grain  is  sifted  in 
a  sieve,  yet  shall  not  the  least  kernel  fall  upon 
the  earth."  The  book  closes  with  other  bright 
pictures  of  the  good  things  which  God  had  in 
store  for  His  righteous  children. 

In  looking  back  over  this  message  as  a  whole, 
we  see  that  it  was  one  of  the  mightiest  sermons 
that  have  ever  been  preached.  In  style  Amos 
was  clear,  direct,  and  powerful.  If  he  was  not 
always  elegant  in  his  diction,  it  was  because  his 
message  itself  was  not  pleasant.  He  drew  his 
figures  from  the  life  which  he  knew  best,  and 
when  he  shocked  the  cultured  folk  of  Bethel  by 
comparing  them  to  frightened  cows  which  "  go 
out  at  the  breaches,  every  one  straight  before 
her,"  he  was  preferring  truth  to  beauty.  He 
was  a  stern  realist,  who  saw  things  as  they 
were,  and  painted  them  as  he  saw  them,  with 
none  of  the  glamour  which  the  idealist  too 
often  throws  over  vice. 


THE  HERDSMAN  FROM  THE  HILLS    8? 

IV.  An  Unsuccessful  Preacher 
When  judged  by  modern  standards,  not  as  a. 
work  of  art,  but  as  an  appeal  for  repentance  and 
reform,  this  mighty  sermon  seems  to  have  been 
a  failure.  By  his  strictures  against  the  State, 
Amos  aroused  the  enmity  of  the  rulers.  By  his 
criticism  of  the  Church,  he  provoked  the  hatred 
of  the  priests  and  the  prophets.  Probably  he 
gained  not  a  single  convert.  What  a  contrast 
to  Mr.  Sunday !  Amos  was  not  even  per- 
mitted to  complete  his  discourse,  and  if  tradi- 
tion be  true,  he  was  so  maltreated  that  he 
crept  back  to  his  native  hills  to  die  from  his 
wounds.  "Blessed  are  they  that  have  been 
persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake :  for  theirs  is 
the  kingdom  of  heaven.  ...  So  perse- 
cuted they  the  prophets  that  were  before  you." 
When  Amaziah  stopped  Amos  in  the  midst 
of  his  sermon,  the  man  of  God  showed  the 
stuff  of  which  the  seers  were  made.  "  I  was  no 
prophet,  neither  was  I  a  prophet's  son  ;  but  I 
was  a  herdsman,  and  a  dresser  of  sycamore 
trees  ;  and  Jehovah  took  me  from  following  the 
flock,  and  Jehovah  said  unto  me,  '  Go  prophesy 
unto  My  people  Israel.'  "  He  was  no  hireling 
prophet,  like  Balaam,  no  product  of  a  "  manu- 
factured ministry,"  no  peripatetic  candidate  in 
quest  of  a  vacant  pulpit.     He  was  a  man  sent  of 


88  AMOS 

God,  and  while  he  had  breath  he  would  speak 
the  things  which  he  had  seen  and  heard. 
"  Surely  the  Lord  will  do  nothing,  except  He 
reveal  His  secret  unto  His  servants,  the  proph- 
ets. The  lion  hath  roared  ;  who  will  not  fear  ? 
The  Lord  Jehovah  hath  spoken  ;  who  can  but 
prophesy  ?  " 

Amos  has  a  message  for  us  to-day,  a  message 
of  which  Mr.  Sunday  has  too  much  of  a  mon- 
opoly. During  the  long  centuries  since  Amos 
spoke  in  Bethel,  conditions  on  the  surface  have 
greatly  changed,  but  at  the  heart  of  things  sin 
and  judgment,  righteousness  and  blessing,  al- 
ways and  everywhere  are  the  same.  The  most 
superficial  reader  of  this  book,  who  has  even  the 
slightest  know) edge  of  our  times,  must  see  in  it 
many  dark  facts  which  on  a  vastly  larger  scale 
find  their  parallel  in  every  part  of  America 
to-day.  To  us  in  America  Jehovah  is  speaking 
through  Amos,  "  You  only  have  I  known  of  all 
the  families  of  the  earth  ;  therefore  I  will  visit 
upon  you  all  your  iniquities."  "  Prepare  to  meet 
thy  God,  O  America  !  " 


IT 

HOSEA  :  THE  PEOPHET  OF  FOEGIYING 
LOVE 

HOSEA  is  one  of  the  most  winsome  men 
in  the  Bible.  Dean  Stanley  calls  him 
the  "  Jeremiah  of  Israel."  He  lived 
in  the  time  of  Amos,  when  the  Northern  King- 
dom was  filled  with  sin  of  every  sort,  and  his 
own  dark  experiences  gave  him  a  peculiar  fit- 
ness for  his  delicate  mission  to  his  age.  In 
many  of  its  details  his  book  is  one  of  the  most 
difficult  in  the  Bible  to  analyze  or  explain,  but 
as  a  whole  it  brings  to  us  one  clear,  strong  mes- 
sage about  a  delicate  theme  which  concerns  us 
all.  Because  of  this  difficulty  and  of  this  del- 
icacy, the  message  is  too  little  known. 

The  Book  of  Hosea  deals  openly  with  the  sin 
and  the  problem  of  adultery.  The  Bible  calls 
this  sin,  as  well  as  every  other,  by  its  proper 
name,  but  it  dwells  upon  such  themes  only  for 
ihe  purpose  of  making  us  purer.  If  wre  are  to 
understand  and  to  teach  large  portions  of  the 
Book,  not  to  speak  of  such  masterpieces  as  the 
works  of  Shakespeare,  of  Hawthorne  or  of 
Ibsen,  we  must  learn  frankly  to  face  this  sin  of 
89 


90  HOSEA 

adultery,  and  to  speak  of  it  with  clearness  but 
without  suggestiveness.  Surely  there  is  a  way 
for  us  in  the  pulpit  and  in  the  home  to  explain 
and  to  enforce  the  teachings  of  one  of  the 
mightiest  of  those  books  which  are  still 
profitable  unto  godliness. 

I.     An  Unfaithful  Wife 

Here  is  the  barest  outline  of  the  tale  as  it  is 
told  in  the  opening  chapters.  Gomer,  the  wife 
of  Hosea,  was  untrue  ;  in  the  phrase  of  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  expositors,  Professor  George 
Adam  Smith,  she  was  a  "prodigal  wife."  She 
was  not  the  ordinary  harlot,  such  as  one  sees 
again  and  again  in  the  prophets.  They  tell  us 
much  about  the  sin  of  fornication,  especially 
when  prolonged  into  a  life  of  vice,  and  the 
Master  adds  to  our  horror  when  we  stand  in 
the  presence  of  an  impure  thought.  Hosea  is 
far  from  silent  about  the  sin  of  fornication,  but 
he  tells  us  that  his  own  wife  was  guilty  of  the 
more  deadly  sin,  adultery. 

Gomer  was  habitually  untrue  to  Hosea.  Not 
only  once  or  twice,  under  the  stress  of  sudden 
temptation,  but  again  and  again,  she  sold  her- 
self to  do  evil,  until  at  last  she  left  her  husband 
and  her  three  children,  of  whom  he  was  prob- 
ably not  the  father,  and  flaunted  her  shame  be 


THE  PROPHET  OF  FORGIVING  LOVE    91 

fore  the  world.  Lower  and  lower  she  seems  to 
have  sunk,  until  her  paramour,  sated  with  his 
lust,  flung  her  aside  as  a  thing  of  shame,  and 
she  was  exposed  for  sale  in  the  slave  market. 
No  one  else  seems  to  have  been  attracted  by 
her,  and  her  former  husband  was  able  to  buy 
her  back  for  the  nominal  sum  which  the  law 
prescribed  as  compensation  for  a  slave  that  had 
been  gored  by  a  bull.  Such  is  a  bald  statement 
of  the  facts  at  the  basis  of  Hosea's  message,  so 
far  as  we  can  reconstruct  them  now. 

We  have  not  yet  touched  the  darkest  prob- 
lem of  the  book.  It  says  that  the  Lord  com- 
manded Hosea  to  marry  this  impure  woman! 
"What  might  otherwise  be  a  sad  tale  of  marital 
infidelity,  with  its  spiritual  application  to  our 
own  hearts,  thus  becomes  a  mystery  concerning 
the  ways  of  God  with  men.  He  is  pure  and 
holy;  such  is  one  of  the  dominant  notes  of 
Hosea's  ministry.  How  could  such  a  holy  God 
command  one  of  the  holiest  of  His  servants  to 
wed  an  impure  woman  ?  There  are  in  general 
three  theories  concerning  this  problem. 

A  few  scholars  interpret  these  facts  most 
literally.  They  tell  us  that  Hosea,  purest  of 
men,  married  Gomer,  knowing  that  she  was 
foulest  among  women ;  and  that  he  lived  with 
her  for  years  as  his  wife,  knowing  from  the 


92  HOSEA 

Lord  that  she  was  untrue.  Aside  from  the 
problem  which  this  interpretation  raises  con- 
cerning Hosea,  it  raises  the  vastly  greater 
problem  of  justifying  the  ways  of  God  to  men. 
This  unvarnished  interpretation  is  repugnant  to 
many  scholars  and  saints,  such  as  the  late 
Professor  W.  H.  Green,  of  Princeton. 

Other  thinkers,  equally  reverent  and  loyal  to 
the  inspired  Book,  regard  the  entire  tale  as  an 
allegory.  One  of  the  most  thoughtful  Bible 
students  that  I  know,  said  after  hearing  this 
tale  as  a  transcript  from  actual  life,  that  she 
had  never  dreamed  that  all  of  this  actually 
occurred :  without  consulting  the  opinions  of 
scholars,  she  had  read  the  book  again  and 
again,  and  she  had  always  supposed  it  to  be 
an  allegory.  Such  testimony  is  most  valuable, 
for  no  prophecy  is  of  private  interpretation. 
When  technical  scholars  and  untechnical  lovers 
of  the  Book  agree  in  holding  such  an  opinion, 
it  is  not  to  be  lightly  rejected.  But  the  fact 
remains  that  this  tale  on  its  surface  appears  to 
be  a  sober  account  of  actual  occurrences,  and 
that  one  who  rejects  it  as  a  sober  statement  of 
facts,  because  these  facts  do  not  suit  his  theory 
of  religion,  establishes  a  dangerous  precedent. 
If  Hosea  be  an  allegory,  how  can  we  distinguish 
truth  in  the  Bible  from  fiction  ? 


THE  PROPHET  OP  FORGIVING  LOVE    93 

The  third  interpretation,  on  which  the  pres- 
ent study  is  based,  may  be  styled  the  retro- 
spective theory.  Let  us  suppose  that  Hosea 
married  Gomer,  thinking  her  to  be  as  pure  as 
himself,  but  that  little  by  little,  then  more  and 
more,  he  was  forced,  most  unwillingly,  to  sus- 
pect her  fidelity.  He  grew  so  suspicious  that 
he  gave  to  the  second  child  of  Gomer  a  name 
which  reflected  his  fears,  and  to  the  third  child 
a  name  which  showed  his  sad  conclusions. 
After  a  long  while  she  left  him.  Sitting  alone 
in  his  grief,  he  learned  deep  spiritual  truths 
which  made  him  a  better  man,  and  prepared 
him  to  become  one  of  the  noblest  prophets  of 
any  age.  Then  he  saw  that  it  had  all  been 
from  the  Lord. 

The  Holy  Spirit  moved  upon  Hosea  to  write 
out  for  us  his  life  tragedy,  not  while  he  was 
passing  through  the  deep  waters,  for  doubtless 
he  had  not  then  learned  to  view  his  sorrows 
as  from  God,  but  after  he  had  planted  his  feet 
again  on  solid  ground.  Then  he  could  see  how 
all  these  things  had  been  working  together  for 
good  to  him,  because  he  loved  God,  and  was 
called  according  to  His  purpose.  Such  an  in- 
terpretation involves  something  of  conjecture, 
although  no  more  than  either  of  the  other 
interpretations,  but  it  seems  on  the  whole  to  be 


94  HOSEA 

the  most  satisfactory.  Perhaps  it  will  be  more 
clear  if  we  think  of  Joseph's  retrospective  view 
of  his  life,  when  he  said  to  his  brothers :  "  It 
was  not  you  that  sent  me  hither,  but  God." 
If  Joseph  had  gone  into  details  in  a  slightly 
different  .fashion,  he  might  have  created  for  us 
such  a  problem  as  we  face  in  the  Book  of  Hosea. 

Assuming  that  the  retrospective  theory  is 
correct,  let  us  look  again  at  the  facts.  Gomer's 
course  downward  seems  to  have  been  gradual. 
In  her  maidenhood  she  may  have  been  so  pure 
and  so  innocent  that  she  would  have  blushed  at 
the  thought  of  such  sins  as  she  was  later  to 
commit ;  and  if  any  person  had  dared  to  sug- 
gest such  a  future  for  her,  she  would  have 
cried  out  for  her  men  folk  to  avenge  her  insult. 
But  in  some  way  which  we  cannot  even  guess, 
the  sin  of  impurity  entered  her  soul,  and  so 
insidious  is  this  most  deadly  of  foes,  that  when 
it  once  gets  a  hold  on  the  heart,  it  rarely  lets 
go,  but  takes  more  and  more  of  the  life  into  its 
slimy  embrace. 

When  Gomer  was  wed,  she  may  still  have 
been  outwardly  pure,  or  if  she  had  already 
sinned  with  her  body,  she  may  have  deter- 
mined to  live  henceforth  a  life  free  from  re- 
proach. Hosea  seems  to  have  received  the 
first  child  as  his  own,  if  we  may  judge  from 


THE  PROPHET  OF  FOBGIVING  LOVE    95 

the  name,  which  suggests  no  suspicion ;  but  not 
so  with  the  second,  whom  he  called,  "Not- 
Pitied  " ;  and  he  must  have  known  that  the 
third  child  was  not  his  own,  for  he  called  it, 
"  Not-My-People."  Through  all  of  this  series 
of  wrongs,  Hosea  seems  never  to  have  lifted 
his  hand  to  avenge  himself,  but  his  heart  had 
been  wrung,  and  in  later  days  he  could  write  as 
one  whose  love  had  been  stronger  than  death. 

Hosea  was  ever  guiltless  of  wrong-doing 
towards  his  wife.  As  a  rule,  where  the  wife  is 
untrue,  the  husband  has  been  the  first  to  sin, 
but  such  is  not  always  the  case.  Sometimes, 
as  in  Tennyson's  poem,  "  The  Wreck,"  the  hus- 
band is  outwardly  true,  but  he  is  so  preoccu- 
pied, so  unloving,  so  unlovable,  that  in  sheer 
despair  his  lonely  wife  throws  herself  away 
upon  some  poor  wretch  who  still  has  a  heart, 
even  though  it  be  filled  with  sin.  But  in  the 
home  of  our  prophet,  the  husband  was  blame- 
less. Hosea  was  one  of  the  purest  men  that 
our  world  has  ever  seen.  No  man  with  such  a 
face  as  Sargent  has  painted  could  ever  have 
given  to  his  wife  the  slightest  shadow  of  excuse 
for  sin. 

Such  a  shallow  woman  as  Gomer  cannot 
appreciate  the  love  of  such  a  strong,  pure  man 
as  Hosea.     Doubtless  she  did  not  understand 


96  HOSEA 

him.  In  "Vanity  Fair"  Amelia  spurns  the 
noble  love  of  Captain  Dobbin,  until  at  last  he 
turns  away ;  and  Becky  delights  in  sin  because 
it  is  sin.  If  in  imagination  we  combine  the 
defects  of  these  two,  we  can  guess  why  Gomer 
could  fail  to  appreciate  one  of  the  most  majestic 
men  of  the  ages.  A  prophet  is  not  without 
honour  save  in  his  own  household. 

Gomer  could  appreciate  the  superficial  charms 
of  showy,  unreal  fellows,  who  would  lead  her 
astray,  ensnare  her  in  toils  which  only  God 
could  break,  and  then  cast  her  aside  as  "a 
thing  for  scorn  to  point  her  slow,  unmoving 
finger  at."  To  share  the  orgies  of  such  as 
these,  she  could  leave  her  home,  leave  her 
husband,  and  even  leave  her  bairns,  just  at  the 
age  when  they  most  needed  a  mother's  love. 
Has  human  nature  ever  sunk  lower  than  in  the 
sin  of  Gomer,  who  sold  herself  to  do  evil? 
Yes !  For  when  woman  stoops  to  such  folly, 
there  is  always  at  least  one  wretch  who  styles 
himself  a  man,  and  who  lives  only  to  make  of 
her  home  a  hell.  But  let  us  turn  away  ;  if  we 
are  pure  in  heart,  we  have  suffered  enough. 

II     An  Unfaithful  Nation 

"Why  should  a  merciful  God  permit  a  good 
man  to  suffer  as  Hosea  suffered  ?    Many  times 


THE  PROPHET  OF  FORGIVING  LOVE    97 

when  we  watch  the  best  man  that  we  know 
being  treated  worse  than  a  brute  would  treat 
his  dog,  we  ask  the  old,  old  question — Why  ? 
But  we  forget  that  only  a  good  man  can  suffer 
as  Hosea  suffered.  If  he  himself  had  been 
impure  at  heart,  he  would  have  resented  the 
affront  to  what  a  modern  man  styles  his  honour, 
and  he  would  have  rushed  out  to  avenge  his 
wrong.  If  he  had  been  merely  a  cold,  unfeel- 
ing husband,  he  might  have  taken  refuge  in  the 
thought  that  he  had  never  been  untrue.  But 
since  he  was  only  a  humble  child  of  God,  he 
must  suffer  because  of  Gomer's  sin,  somewhat 
as  God  suffers  because  of  our  sin.  Because 
Hosea  was  pure  and  strong,  he  could  love 
Gomer  with  a  love  that  passeth  knowledge, 
and  when  he  found  that  his  love  was  not  re- 
turned, but  that  it  was  rather  trampled  under 
the  feet  of  her  who  was  not  worthy  to  touch 
the  hem  of  his  garment,  still  he  could  love  and 
he  could  suffer. 

In  the  midst  of  his  own  sufferings,  Hosea 
must  have  learned  to  sympathize  with  othei 
men,  for  he  lived  in  an  age  and  in  a  land  filled 
with  impurity  of  the  blackest  hue.  As  he 
looked  out  over  his  own  threshold,  where  those 
helpless  bairns  were  sobbing  for  the  love  of  a 
mother   who  was  worse  than   dead,  he  must 


98  HOSEA 

have  seen  other  homes  which  sin  had  blasted, 
and  his  heart  must  have  been  filled  with  a  new 
sympathy  for  the  innocent  sufferers,  a  sympathy 
born  of  his  own  sufferings.  As  he  began  to  see 
the  light  again,  he  must  have  yearned  to  share 
it  with  all  who  suffered  with  him  at  the  hand 
of  sinners  whom  they  loved.  To  sympathize 
means  to  suffer  with,  and  for  his  gentle  minis- 
try as  a  friend  of  sinners  Hosea  was  made  more 
perfect  through  the  things  which  he  suffered. 

Little  by  little  Hosea  must  have  seen  a 
deeper  meaning  in  his  sorrows.  Not  only  was 
he  to  become  the  sympathizing  friend  of  others 
whose  love  had  been  misplaced,  but  he  was  to 
teach  Israel  that  she  was  guilty  of  the  sin  of 
spiritual  adultery.  This  figure  startles  us  at 
first,  but  nothing  weaker  could  convey  the 
truth  about  an  unfaithful  Church,  such  as  that 
in  the  time  of  Hosea.  This  figure  did  not 
originate  with  him,  for  it  was  the  natural 
corollary  of  the  common  Biblical  teaching  that 
Jehovah  was  spiritually  the  Husband  of  the 
Church.  Other  lands  which  sinned  grievously 
against  Jehovah  were  guilty  of  fornication,  but 
Israel  and  Judah,  which  had  plighted  their 
troth,  were  guilty  of  spiritual  adultery.  No- 
where did  this  awful  thought  find  clearer 
expression   than  in  the  book  written  by  this 


THE  PEOPHET  OF  FOKGIVING  LOVE    99 

man  who  had  himself  suffered  somewhat  as 
God  was  suffering. 

Jehovah  had  ever  been  true  to  Israel.  He 
had  set  His  love  upon  her,  and  He  had  never 
let  her  go.  "I  taught  Ephraim  also  to  go, 
taking  them  by  their  arms,  but  they  knew  not 
that  I  healed  them."  He  had  loved  her  with 
an  endless  love,  and  had  chosen  her  for  price- 
less joys,  but  she  had  been  untrue ;  she  had  for- 
gotten her  Lord,  and  her  course  downward  had 
waxed  worse  and  worse.  She  had  long  since 
forgotten  her  first  love  for  Jehovah,  and  had 
been  captivated  by  the  deities  of  other  lands, 
especially  by  Baal.  "'She  went  after  her 
lovers,  and  forgat  Me,'  saith  the  Lord."  She 
had  led  herself  to  believe  that  the  corn  and  the 
fruit  and  the  cattle  had  come  from  Baal,  and 
not  from  Jehovah  ;  and  so  she  had  sold  herself 
to  do  evil,  and  all  for  something  to  eat ! 

The  result  of  such  spiritual  adultery  was 
inevitable.  The  next  generation  did  not  know 
Jehovah  as  their  father,  but  Baal.  They  lived 
still  in  Jehovah's  land,  and  they  called  them- 
selves by  His  name,  but  they  were  not  like  Him, 
and  they  could  not  do  His  will.  They  became 
so  vile  in  heart  and  in  life  that  they  lost  the 
favour  of  the  One  Who  should  have  meant  more 
to  them  than  life.    They  plowed  wickedness,  and 


100  HOSEA 

they  must  reap  iniquity  ;  they  sowed  the  wind, 
and  they  must  reap  the  whirlwind.  In  no  other 
way  could  the  love  of  God  lead  them  to  re- 
pentance. In  plain  terms,  which  our  prophet's 
figure  should  make  all  the  stronger,  Israel  must 
suffer  for  all  of  her  sins,  unless  she  repent. 

III.     A  Forgiven  Nation 

Hosea  was  the  prophet  of  love,  and  such  love 
as  he  revealed  was  ever  waiting  to  forgive.  At 
last  the  prodigal  nation  would  come  back,  and 
would  find  Jehovah  ready  to  forgive.  From 
this  lofty  point  of  view  we  may  scan  the  entire 
book,  and  find  it  in  three  great  truths  of  re- 
ligion, three  truths  as  characteristic  of  Hosea  as 
they  are  of  the  Apostle  John.  The  first  of  the 
three  concerns  knowledge  of  God.  "  This  is 
life  eternal,  to  know."  As  Gomer  had  sinned 
against  Hosea,  so  Israel  had  sinned  against 
Jehovah,  because  she  had  not  really  known 
Him ;  and  when  she  came  to  know  Him,  be- 
cause of  the  things  which  He  let  her  suffer, 
she  would  return  to  Him  with  chastened  love. 

Here  are  some  of  Hosea's  words  about  knowl- 
edge, presented  without  sequence  or  comment. 
"  Jehovah  hath  a  controversy  with  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  land,  because  there  is  no  truth,  nor 
goodness,  nor  knowledge  of  God  in  the  land." 


THE  PROPHET  OF  FORGIVING  LOVE    101 

"  She  did  not  know  that  I  gave  her  the  grain, 
and  the  new  wine,  and  the  oil,  and  multiplied 
unto  her  the  silver  and  gold,  which  they  used 
for  Baal."  "  My  people  are  destroyed  for  lack 
of  knowledge."  "Whoredom  and  wine  and 
new  wine  take  away  the  understanding." 
"  Ephraim  is  like  a  silly  dove,  without  under- 
standing." "  I  desire  goodness  and  not  sacri- 
fice, and  the  knowledge  of  God  more  than  burnt 
offerings."  "  I  will  even  betroth  thee  unto  Me 
in  faithfulness ;  and  thou  shalt  know  Jehovah." 
"  My  God,  we  Israel  know  Thee."  "  Let  us 
know,  let  us  follow  on  to  know  the  Lord." 

The  second  of  these  key-notes  of  Hosea  is  to 
return,  or  to  turn,  meaning  to  repent,  and  to  be 
converted.  "  Their  doings  will  not  suffer  them 
to  turn  unto  their  God."  "  My  people  are 
bent  on  backsliding  from  Me."  "  O  Israel,  re- 
turn unto  Jehovah  thy  God,  for  thou  hast 
fallen  by  thine  iniquity.  Take  with  you  words, 
and  return  unto  Jehovah :  say  unto  Him, '  Take 
away  all  iniquity,  and  accept  that  which  is 
good.' "  "  Jehovah  is  His  memorial  name. 
Therefore  turn  thou  to  thy  God :  keep  kindness 
and  justice,  and  wait  for  thy  God  continually." 
"  Sow  to  yourselves  in  righteousness,  reap  ac- 
cording to  kindness  ;  for  it  is  time  to  seek 
Jehovah,  till  He  come  and  rain  righteousness 


102  HOSEA 

upon  you."  "  '  In  their  affliction  they  will  seek 
Me  earnestly.'  '  Come,  and  let  us  return  unto 
Jehovah ;  for  He  hath  torn,  and  He  will  heal 
us ;  He  hath  smitten,  and  He  will  bind  us  up. 
After  two  days  will  He  revive  us.'  " 

The  third  mighty  truth  in  this  book  is  God's 
love  for  sinners.  This  word  love  does  not  ap- 
pear so  often  as  one  might  expect,  but  the  spirit 
of  love  is  everywhere  in  Hosea :  like  the  salt 
in  the  sea,  love  here  is  in  solution,  but  unlike 
the  salt  in  the  sea,  love  here  deposits  more  than 
a  few  crystals.  "  When  Israel  was  a  child, 
then  I  loved  him."  But  they  "  became  abomi- 
nable, like  that  which  they  loved."  "How 
shall  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim  ?  How  shall  I 
cast  thee  off,  Israel?"  "I  will  have  mercy 
upon  her  that  had  not  obtained  mercy  ;  and  I 
will  say  unto  them  that  were  not  My  people, 
1  Thou  art  My  people ; '  and  they  shall  say, 
'  Thou  art  my  God.'  "  "  I  will  heal  their  back- 
sliding, I  will  love  them  freely  ;  for  Mine  anger 
is  turned  away  from  him.  I  will  be  as  the 
dew  unto  Israel ;  he  shall  blossom  as  the  lily." 
"  I  will  ransom  them  from  the  power  of  Sheol ; 
I  will  redeem  them  from  death:  'O  death, 
where  are  thy  plagues  ?  O  Sheol,  where  is 
thy  destruction  ?  '  " 

The  last  words  of  the  book  give  the  sum  of 


THE  PEOPHET  OF  FOEGIVING  LOVE    103 

the  plea  as  a  whole.  "  Who  is  wise,  that  he 
may  understand  these  things,  prudent  that  he 
may  know  them  ?  For  the  ways  of  Jehovah 
are  right,  and  the  just  shall  walk  in  them ; 
but  transgressors  shall  fall  therein."  We 
might  do  well  to  cease  here,  and  to  let  these 
tender,  compelling  words  keep  ringing  in  our 
ears  as  a  call  for  us  to  repent.  But  we  prefer 
to  look  back  and  to  inquire  concerning  the  fate 
of  poor  Gomer.  Through  her  sin  Rosea  had 
learned  to  sympathize  more  deeply  with  the 
sufferings  of  God,  because  of  His  unfaithful 
Church,  and  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  through 
Hosea's  deepening  knowledge  of  Jehovah's  for- 
giveness, he  learned  that  he  should  forgive  his 
own  unfaithful  wife. 

IV.     A  Forgiven  Wife 

Hosea's  forgiveness  is  almost  without  a  par- 
allel. When  Gomer  was  exposed  for  sale  as  a 
slave  he  bought  her  back,  and  he  took  her  to 
his  home.  He  had  never  ceased  to  love  her, 
and  as  soon  as  she  repented,  he  strove  to  treat 
her  somewhat  as  he  had  learned  that  Jehovah 
would  treat  His  penitent  Church.  Alas  for 
Gomer,  never  on  earth  would  she  become  such 
a  wife  and  mother  as  she  might  have  been  if 
she  had  not  fallen  ;  but  at  last  she  must  have 


104  HOSEA 

begun  to  understand  the  great  loving  heart  of 
her  husband  ;  and  so  long  as  she  lived,  she 
must  ever  have  striven  to  prove  herself  some- 
what worthy  to  bear  the  name  of  one  of  earth's 
noblest  saints.  One  cannot  but  think  of  the 
contrast  between  this  picture  and  that  of  Ten- 
nyson, where  the  King  parts  forever  from  the 
Queen.  If  Arthur  is  majestic,  Hosea  was 
almost  divine. 

A  few  years  ago  a  minister  who  shall  be 
nameless  was  sitting  in  his  study  preparing  for 
his  work  on  the  Lord's  Day,  when  a  young 
man  of  humble  dress  walked  in  through  the 
open  door,  introduced  himself,  and  asked  if  a 
certain  young  woman  was  an  inmate  of  the 
local  Crittenden  Home.  That  minister  was 
one  of  the  directors  of  the  Home,  but  he  hesi- 
tated to  tell  what  he  knew,  because  these  insti- 
tutions carefully  guard  the  identity  of  each 
inmate,  who  is  known  even  to  her  unfortunate 
companions  under  an  assumed  name  ;  but  when 
he  had  heard  the  tale,  he  said  that  the  young 
woman  was  in  the  Home,  and  that  if  she  were 
willing,  they  could  meet  once  more,  but  only  in 
the  presence  of  a  witness. 

The  minister  hurried  out  to  the  Home,  where 
he  astounded  the  young  woman  by  telling  her 
of  the  lover  from  whom  she  had  fled  in  dis- 


THE  PEOPHET  OF  FOKGIVING  LOVE    105 

grace.  She  was  most  eager  for  the  interview, 
and  it  seemed,  best  to  the  matron  that  the  min- 
ister should  serve  as  the  witness.  Only  through 
him  are  the  facts  known,  and  they  must  not  be 
told  too  clearly,  for  both  the  principals  are 
doubtless  still  alive.  For  convenience  let  us 
think  of  them  as  Mary  and  John. 

"When  Mary  came  into  the  room,  John  rushed 
to  embrace  her,  but  she  held  him  away,  while 
with  sobs  which  she  could  scarcely  control  she 
told  him  that  she  had  proved  unworthy  of  her 
betrothal  vows,  which  he  had  ever  regarded  as 
holy,  and  that  she  was  soon  to  become  the 
mother  of  a  child  begotten  by  another  man ; 
she  wished  only  to  ask  her  real  lover  for  God's 
sake  to  forgive  her,  and  then  to  part  forever. 
But  John  would  not  have  it  so ;  he  took  her  to 
his  heart  and  told  her  he  knew  that  she  had 
been  more  sinned  against  than  sinning,  that 
she  had  long  since  repented,  that  she  had 
found  forgiveness,  and  that  by  God's  grace  her 
soul  was  whiter  than  snow.  He  told  her  that  he 
loved  her  still,  and  that  he  had  sought  her  near 
and  far,  to  claim  her  as  his  bride. 

At  the  first  mention  of  marriage,  poor  Mary 
tore  herself  away,  crying  out  that  she  was  not 
worthy,  that  she  was  an  outcast.  But  John 
would  not  let  her  speak  against  herself ;   he 


106  HOSEA 

took  her  again  in  his  arms,  told  her  again  that 
she  was  pure,  and  that  his  love  would  never 
let  her  go.  Little  by  little  she  yielded  to  the 
desire  of  her  heart,  and  after  the  Board  of  the 
Home  had  given  its  approval,  the  minister 
united  the  two  in  holy  wedlock.  John  secured 
employment  as  a  street-car  conductor  in  that 
city,  where  both  of  them  were  unknown ;  they 
began  their  life  together  in  a  wee  cottage  ;  and 
ere  long  Mary  gave  birth  to  a  boy. 

When  I  first  listened  to  this  tale,  I  thought 
of  Hosea  and  Gomer ;  then  I  thought  of  God 
and  His  Church.  When  I  learned  how  John 
loved  Mary  and  her  little  babe,  and  how  Mary 
adored  the  man  who  had  lifted  her  out  of  the 
pit,  I  thought  of  God's  love  for  His  Church, 
and  of  the  love  which  she  should  bear  to  Him. 
"  Her  sins  which  are  many,  are  forgiven  ;  for 
she  loved  much :  but  to  whom  little  is  for- 
given, the  same  loveth  little."  Judging  from 
our  slack  devotion,  one  would  suppose  that  we 
had  sinned  against  Him  only  a  little,  and  that 
we  felt  the  need  for  only  a  little  forgiveness  ; 
but  when  we  learn  the  truth  from  Hosea,  and 
from  the  Christ  for  Whom  he  prepared  the 
way,  we  know  that  we  are  guilty  of  spiritual 
adultery. 

The  sins  of  the  Church  are  even  more  of  a 


THE  PEOPHET  OF  FORGIVING  LOVE    107 

sorrow  to  God  than  the  sins  of  the  world. 
We  often  say  that  the  worst  sin  is  unbelief, 
which,  according  to  the  prophets,  is  spiritual 
fornication ;  but  we  forget  that  it  is  better  not 
to  vow  than  to  vow  and  not  pay.  If  we  fall 
after  the  vows  of  God  are  upon  us,  we  are 
guilty  of  a  sin  far  more  black  than  that  of 
Gomer.  Instead  of  throwing  stones  at  her, 
and  at  weary  unfortunates  to-day,  who  are 
ready  to  end  it  all  under  the  Bridge  of  Sighs, 
we  should  learn  the  horror  of  our  own  un- 
faithfulness, and  repent,  ere  we  become  al- 
together abominable,  like  the  sins  which  we 
love. 

The  hope  for  an  unfaithful  Church  is  ever 
the  same :  "  Let  us  know,  let  us  follow  on  to 
know  the  Lord  "  ;  "  Come  and  let  us  return 
unto  Jehovah "  ;  "I  will  heal  their  backslid- 
ing, I  will  love  them  freely  "  ;  "I  will  ransom 
them  from  the  power  of  Sheol,  I  will  redeem 
them  from  death."  Now  abideth  knowledge, 
repentance,  love,  these  three  ;  but  the  greatest 
of  these  is  love.  Such  is  the  Gospel  according 
to  Hosea. 


ISAIAH  :  THE  PEOPHET  TO  THE  NATION 

NO  man  in  the  Old  Testament  looms 
larger  in  the  eyes  of  the  modern 
world  than  Isaiah.  "  By  the  strength 
of  his  personality,  the  wisdom  of  his  statesman- 
ship, the  length  and  unbroken  assurance  of  his 
ministry,  the  almost  unaided  service  which  he 
rendered  to  Judah  at  the  greatest  crisis  of  her 
history,  the  purity  and  grandeur  of  his  style, 
and  the  influence  which  he  exerted  on  sub- 
sequent prophecy," — by  all  of  this  and  more, 
he  impresses  us  as  the  greatest  of  all  the 
prophets  whose  writings  are  extant.  When- 
ever we  use  the  word  prophet,  we  think  at 
once  of  Isaiah. 

This  man  has  well  been  styled  the  king  of 
the  prophets.  Among  all  the  gifted  seers  of 
the  Old  Testament,  he  stands  out  as  the  most 
versatile.  He  was  "  distinguished  less  by  any 
special  excellence  than  by  the  symmetry  and 
the  perfection  of  all  his  powers."  He  was  a 
theologian,  a  statesman,  a  reformer,  an  orator, 
a  historian,  a  poet,  and  more  important  still, 
108 


THE  PEOPHET  TO  THE  NATION     109 

he  was  a  man  filled  with  the  Spirit,  as  saintly 
as  he  was  strong.  As  an  orator  and  poet  he 
was  master  of  a  style  which  for  beauty  and 
force  has  been  the  model  as  well  as  the  de- 
spair of  writers  and  speakers  in  all  ages,  and 
which  for  vividness  of  sustained  imaginative 
flights  has  rarely  been  approached. 

Isaiah  was  always  and  everywhere  a  prophet. 
Whatever  the  occasion  and  whatever  the  theme, 
he  was  ever  voicing  a  message  from  God  to  the 
men  of  his  day.  He  differed  from  other  seers 
in  the  number  and  the  variety  of  the  fields 
which  he  entered,  in  each  of  which  he  was 
perfectly  at  home.  Like  Hosea,  he  was  vitally 
concerned  for  the  deepest  spiritual  truth.  Like 
Amos  and  Micah,  he  was  a  social  reformer. 
Like  Elijah,  he  was  a  spiritual  statesman ;  but 
more  than  Elijah,  or  almost  any  other  seer,  he 
had  a  broad  vision  of  international  affairs,  and 
a  thorough  mastery  of  the  spiritual  principles 
upon  which  the  state  must  rest.  In  the  pres- 
ent study,  which  must  be  brief,  we  shall  look 
at  him  most  largely  as  the  prophet  to  the 
nation. 

I.     The  Mem  and  His  Times 

The  Book  of  Isaiah,  strange  to  tell,  is  little 
understood.     We  praise  it,  but  we  seldom  read 


110  ISAIAH 

it.  We  know  a  chapter  here  and  there,  to 
which  we  often  turn,  but  we  do  not  know  the 
book  as  a  whole,  or  even  any  large  portion  of 
it.  Many  of  us  who  pride  ourselves  on  know- 
ing this  book  might  as  well  pride  ourselves  on 
knowing  America,  because  forsooth  we  have 
climbed  Mount  Mitchell  and  Pike's  Peak. 
Without  some  knowledge  of  the  background 
against  which  the  prophet  stood  when  he 
pointed  across  the  gloomy  years  to  the  figure 
of  the  coming  King,  we  cannot  comprehend 
his  promises  or  his  judgments.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  we  study  these  pages  in  the  light  of 
contemporary  history,  we  may  expect  an  in- 
creasing reward. 

We  know  this  man  solely  as  he  revealed 
himself  in  his  writings,  and  that  was  but 
casually.  We  infer  that  he  was  of  noble  birth, 
that  he  was  highly  educated,  and  that  he  was 
a  man  of  distinction  in  Jerusalem.  We  know 
that  he  prophesied  in  the  latter  portion  of  the 
eighth  century  before  Christ,  beginning  his  life- 
work  about  740  b.  c,  and  closing  it  not  long 
after  700  b.  c.  We  know,  too,  that  he  was 
married,  and  that  he  begat  two  sons,  on  whom 
he  bestowed  names  symbolical  of  his  twofold 
message :  "  a  remnant  shall  return,"  and  "  the 
spoil  speedeth,  the  prey  hasteth."     "  Behold,  I 


THE  PEOPHET  TO  THE  NATION     111 

and  the  children  whom  Jehovah  hath  given  to 
me  are  for  signs  and  wonders  in  Israel." 

"  In  the  year  that  King  Uzziah  died,"  that  is, 
about  740  b.  c,  Isaiah  was  called.  The  times 
sorely  needed  a  man  with  all  of  his  gifts  and 
graces.  During  the  long  years  of  peace  under 
Uzziah,  the  farmers  had  filled  their  barns  to 
bursting,  and  the  city  folk,  whom  the  prophet 
knew  best,  had  learned  to  revel  in  all  that 
wealth  could  buy.  The  few  barons  into  whose 
hands  the  larger  portion  of  the  land  and  the 
gold  had  fallen,  were  using  their  power  to 
exploit  the  common  people.  Vying  with  each 
other  in  luxury  and  in  vice,  the  self-styled 
upper  classes  were  running  to  every  excess  of 
riot.  The  women  especially  were  deliberately 
calling  attention  to  themselves  by  the  gaudi- 
ness  and  the  suggestiveness  of  their  attire. 

In  the  first  chapter,  which  Ewald  styles  the 
Grand  Arraignment,  Isaiah  showed  that  the  root 
of  all  their  sins  was  irreligion,  and  that  their 
only  hope  was  in  returning  to  Jehovah.  They 
would  have  said  that  they  were  intensely  relig- 
ious, because  formal  worship  of  every  sort  was 
flourishing :  ritualism  divorced  from  righteous- 
ness ;  superstition  and  witchcraft ;  even  the 
foulest  rites  of  idolatry.  "  The  ox  knoweth 
his  owner,  and  the  ass  his  master's  crib,  but 


112  ISAIAH 

Israel  doth  not  know,  My  people  doth  not  con- 
sider.1' The  worship  of  such  a  people  was  a 
stench  in  the  nostrils  of  God.  "  Wash  you, 
make  you  clean;  put  away  the  evil  of  your 
doings  from  before  Mine  eyes;  cease  to  do 
evil ;  learn  to  do  well ;  seek  justice,  relieve  the 
oppressed,  judge  the  fatherless,  and  plead  for 
the  widows." 

The  scarlet  sins  of  the  nation  appeared  again 
in  the  fifth  chapter,  with  its  figure  of  Jeho- 
vah's vineyard  and  its  sour  grapes,  or  Israel  and 
her  social  sins.  "He  looked  for  justice,  but, 
behold,  oppression ;  for  righteousness,  but,  be- 
hold, a  cry."  Proceeding  from  this  text,  the 
prophet  hurled  five  woes  against  the  sins  of 
Judah,  and  especially  against  those  which 
flowed  from  strong  drink.  For  example, 
drunken  sceptics  were  scoffing :  "  Let  the 
counsel  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  draw  nigh 
and  come,  that  we  may  know  it."  "  For  all 
this  His  anger  is  not  turned  away,  and  His 
hand  is  stretched  out  still." 

In  this  same  chapter  the  prophet  for  the  first 
time  pointed  out  the  other  peril  which  threat- 
ened the  very  existence  of  Judah :  not  only 
was  she  honeycombed  with  social  and  in- 
dividual sin ;  but  she  was  soon  to  face  a 
mighty,  unscrupulous  foe,  even  Assyria.     "  And 


THE  PEOPHET  TO  THE  NATION     113 

He  will  lift  up  an  ensign  to  the  nations  from 
far,  and  will  hiss  for  them  from  the  end  of  the 
earth ;  and  behold  they  shall  come  with  speed 
swiftly."  Even  in  our  English  translation  this 
entire  paragraph  is  worthy  of  study  as  a  model 
of  the  art  of  wedding  ideas  and  words,  but  it 
produced  small  effect  upon  the  inhabitants  of 
that  "jubilant  city."  Much  peace  and  pros- 
perity had  made  them  mad. 
^^^TudSh^andTTsl^rwere  situated  on  the  high- 
way between  the  two  great  world  powers, 
Assyria  and  Egypt,  and  Hebrew  history  might 
be  scanned  with  interest  to  watch  how  those 
two  tiny  states  strove  to  elude  the  clutches  of 
one  or  the  other  of  these  two  rapacious  powers. 
Ancient  Judah  and  Israel  seem  large  to  us, 
who  think  of  their  place  in  the  history  of  re- 
demption, but  despite  all  their  own  estimates 
of  their  prowess,  and  all  their  hopes  for  world- 
wide dominion,  in  contrast  with  these  two 
mighty  empires  they  were  territorially  as  in- 
significant as  Holland  and  Switzerland  in 
modern  Europe.  But  Isaiah  strove  in  vain  to 
convince  the  nation  that  Assyria  was  only 
waiting  for  a  pretext  to  swallow  her  attractive 
little  neighbour,  which  was  daily  becoming 
weaker  because  of  sin.  All  of  this  was  close 
to  the  heart  of  his  political  message. 


114  ISAIAH 

II  His  Political  Teachings 
Isaiah  was  a  spiritual  statesman.  He  held 
no  office,  and  as  a  rule  he  was  spokesman  for 
an  unpopular  cause,  but  always  he  was  a  power 
for  political  righteousness.  He  demanded  that 
the  nation  return  to  pure  religion,  and  that 
they  carry  it  into  every  cranny  of  political  life 
at  home,  as  well  as  into  all  their  international 
relations.  He  knew  that  his  nation  had  passed 
the  parting  of  the  ways,  and  that  they  had 
chosen  the  path  which  would  lead  ere  long  to 
doom,  but  still  he  strove  to  prepare  the  rem- 
nant which  would  survive  after  disaster  came 
upon  the  nation.  His  political  teachings  fall 
into  three  groups,  corresponding  roughly  with 
the  reigns  of  Jotham,  of  Ahaz  and  of  Hezekiah. 
During  the  first  period,  extending  roughly 
from  740  b.  c.  to  735  b.  c,  Isaiah  was  ever 
picturing  coming  doom.  Because  of  popular 
irreligion  and  lack  of  faith,  because  of  luxury 
and  vice,  he  foresaw  that  his  people  would 
quickly  succumb  to  pressure  from  without. 
His  descriptions  of  oncoming  doom  are  among 
the  most  powerful  in  all  prophetic  liter- 
ature. "  The  loftiness  of  man  shall  be  bowed 
down,  and  the  haughtiness  of  men  shall  be 
brought  low ;  and  Jehovah  of  hosts  shall  be 
exalted  in  that  day."     In  this  first  attempt  to 


THE  PROPHET  TO  THE  NATION     115 

avert  doom,  the  seer  failed,  as  he  had  known 
from  the  beginning  that  he  must  fail ;  but  all 
the  while  he  kept  recurring  to  the  comforting 
truth  about  the  remnant.  "  And  it  shall  come 
to  pass  that  he  that  is  left  in  Zion,  and  he  that 
remaineth  in  Jerusalem,  shall  be  called  holy." 

During  the  second  period,  extending  roughly 
from  734  b.  o.  to  719  b.  c,  the  activity  of  the 
prophet  centered  round  the  year  734  b.  c, 
when  his  dire  predictions  were  partially  ful- 
filled in  the  joint  attack  from  the  combined 
forces  of  Israel  and  Syria  (not  Assyria !).  In 
desperation  King  Ahaz  determined  to  seek 
refuge  under  the  outstretched  wing  of  mighty 
Assyria.  "  His  heart  trembled,  and  the  heart 
of  his  people,  as  the  trees  of  the  forest  tremble 
before  the  wind."  Isaiah  went  to  him  with  a 
message  from  the  Lord :  "  Take  heed,  and  be 
quiet ;  fear  not,  neither  let  thy  heart  be  faint 
because  of  those  two  tails  of  smoking  fire- 
brands." The  prophet  warned  king  and  na- 
tion to  seek  no  entangling  alliances,  but  to 
trust  solely  in  the  Lord :  "  If  ye  will  not  be- 
lieve, surely  ye  shall  not  be  established." 

"Ahaz  did  not  hearken  to  Isaiah,  but  threw 
himself  and  his  people  into  the  waiting  arms 
of  Assyria,  which  quickly  quelled  Israel  and 
Syria.     Ahaz  was  weak  and  vain  ;  so  he  could 


116  ISAIAH 

scarcely  have  risen  to  the  heights  of  faith  de- 
manded by  the  prophet.  The  people,  too,  with 
certain  exceptions,  had  small  faith.  For  a  time 
after  they  sought  protection  from  Assyria,  they 
must  have  congratulated  themselves  on  their 
bargain,  but  ere  long  they  awoke  to  the  fact 
that  in  escaping  from  relatively  insignificant 
foes  near  by,  they  had  thrown  themselves  into 
the  power  of  the  mightiest  empire  on  earth. 
Eepentance  came  soon,  but  it  came  too  late. 
It  grew  stronger  still  in  722  b.  c,  when  Israel 
was  carried  away  into  captivity,  nevermore  to 
return,  leaving  Judah  alone  to  await  her  doom. 
During  the  last  years  of  the  eighth  century, 
and  especially  at  its  close,  Isaiah  entered  into 
his  most  brilliant  days.  The  proud  people  of 
Judah,  who  had  long  boasted  of  their  inde- 
pendence, were  growing  more  and  more  restive 
under  the  heavy  yoke  of  Assyria,  and  so  their 
leaders  plotted  rebellion,  or  sought  a  defensive 
alliance  with  Egypt.  Isaiah,  in  order  to  meet 
the  new  needs  of  his  nation,  changed  his  mes- 
sage once  more.  While  his  nation  had  been 
free,  he  had  pleaded  with  them  to  rely  upon 
Jehovah,  and  to  remain  independent ;  now  that 
by  their  own  folly  they  were  at  the  mercy  of 
Assyria,  he  implored  them  to  submit,  until  Je- 
hovah should  set  them  free. 


THE  PEOPHET  TO  THE  NATION     111 

In  701  b.  o.,  the  crisis  became  imminent. 
About  ten  years  before,  when  the  nation  had 
been  ready  to  break  loose  from  Assyria,  and  to 
join  forces  with  Egypt,  the  prophet  had  been 
commanded  to  go  about  naked  and  shoeless,  as 
a  token  of  the  way  in  which  Egypt  would  soon 
be  stripped  by  Assyria ;  and  for  a  time  the 
people  had  desisted  from  their  folly ;  but  at 
last  they  were  to  have  their  way.  Isaiah  kept 
pleading  with  king  and  people  to  wait  for  the 
salvation  of  God.  "  In  returning  and  rest  shall 
ye  be  saved  ;  in  quietness  and  confidence  shall 
be  your  strength."  But  the  people  would  not 
wait  for  God.  They  doubtless  suspected  that 
Isaiah  was  in  sympathy  with  their  oppressors, 
and  hence  they  must  have  listened  all  the  more 
eagerly  to  the  emissaries  of  Egypt,  who  bade 
them  combine  with  other  petty  kingdoms  in  a 
conspiracy  against  Assyria. 

All  this  while  many  of  the  people  and  the 
rulers,  as  well  as  many  of  the  prophets  and  the 
priests,  were  revelling  and  carousing  with  the 
most  amazing  unconcern.  In  their  drunken 
songs,  over  tables  full  of  vomit  and  filthiness, 
they  were  scoffing  at  the  oft  repeated  warnings 
of  the  prophet,  and  exulting  in  their  godless 
alliance.  "We  have  made  a  covenant  with 
death,  and  with  Sheol  we  are  at  agreement." 


118  ISAIAH 

"  Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  .  .  . 
'  your  covenant  with  death  shall  be  annulled,  and 
your  agreement  with  Sheol  shall  not  stand ; 
when  the  overflowing  scourge  shall  pass 
through,  then  shall  ye  be  trodden  down  by  it.' " 
The  prophet  told  them  plainly  that  the  Lord 
would  bring  Assyria  upon  them  within  the 
year. 

Isaiah  warned  them  not  to  trust  in  Egypt. 
" '  Woe  to  the  rebellious  children,'  saith  Jehovah, 
1  that  take  counsel,  but  not  of  Me ;  and  that  make 
a  league,  but  not  of  My  Spirit ;  that  they  may 
add  sin  to  sin ;  .  .  .  to  strengthen  them- 
selves in  the  strength  of  Pharaoh,  and  to  take 
refuge  in  the  shadow  of  Egypt.  Therefore 
shall  the  strength  of  Pharaoh  be  your  shame ; 
and  the  shadow  of  Egypt  your  confusion.'" 
The  only  response  of  the  rebellious  people  was 
to  cry  out  for  smooth  sayings !  But  the  seer 
spake  on :  "  Woe  to  them  that  go  down  to 
Egypt  for  help,  and  rely  on  horses,  and  trust  in 
chariots  because  they  are  many,  and  in  horse- 
men because  they  are  very  strong,  but  they  look 
not  unto  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  neither  seek 
Jehovah !  Yet  He  also  is  wise.  .  .  .  Now 
the  Egyptians  are  men  and  not  God  ;  and  their 
horses  flesh,  and  not  spirit ;  and  when  Jehovah 
shall  stretch  out  His  hand,  both  he  that  helpeth 


THE  PKOPHET  TO  THE  NATION     119 

shall  stumble,  and  lie  that  is  helped  shall  fall, 
and  they  shall  all  be  consumed  together." 

Once  again  Isaiah  failed.  Despite  his  clear, 
repeated  warnings,  Judah  took  the  first,  feeble 
steps  towards  freedom  from  the  yoke  of  As- 
syria, and  soon  the  alien  hosts  came  pouring  out 
from  the  North  like  a  flood.  The  conspiracy 
loosely  formed  under  the  friendly  eye  of  Egypt, 
with  Judah  as  its  ringleader,  quickly  collapsed, 
and  the  people  who  had  been  jubilant  over  the 
prospect  of  freedom,  soon  saw  their  partners  in 
the  conspiracy  falling  one  by  one  before  the 
Assyrian  cohorts,  which  were  leading  Judah 
for  their  last  and  sweetest  victim.  "  The  sin- 
ners in  Zion  are  afraid  ;  trembling  hath  seized 
the  godless  ones :  '  Who  can  dwell  with  the 
devouring  fire  ?  Who  among  us  can  dwell  with 
everlasting  burnings  ? '  " 

When  the  people  saw  that  the  shadow  of 
Egypt  was  helpless  to  save  them,  and  that  her 
strength  was  to  sit  still,  they  turned  to  the  man 
of  God,  and  they  found  him  waiting  with  a 
message  as  reassuring  as  it  was  unexpected  and 
undeserved.  He  had  perplexed  them  by  fore- 
telling the  coming  of  Assyria,  as  the  agent  of 
God  to  chastise  His  faithless  children,  but  when 
the  lion  had  come,  and  was  standing  ready  to 
devour  her  petty  lamb,  Isaiah  astounded  his 


120  ISAIAH 

people  by  the  definite  prediction  that  while  be« 
sieging  Jerusalem,  Assyria  would  meet  with 
overwhelming  destruction  from  the  hand  of 
God.  After  this  prediction,  startling  events 
followed  in  such  swift  succession  that  we  can- 
not trace  them  here. 

"  Esaias  is  very  bold."  In  his  inspired  philos- 
ophy, which  is  only  a  poorer  term  for  his  faith, 
there  was  no  room  for  chance ;  no  way  for  men 
or  nations  to  overturn  the  will  of  God.  As- 
syria was  to  be  the  agent  of  Jehovah  in  punish- 
ing Judah  for  her  sins,  but  Assyria  herself  was 
to  be  rebuked.  Just  when  she  thought  the 
victory  was  to  be  had  for  the  taking,  Jehovah 
was  to  put  to  flight  the  armies  of  her  aliens. 
In  the  eyes  of  the  people  and  the  rulers,  opened 
wide  by  fright  and  able  at  last  to  see  the 
strength  of  Assyria  over  against  the  weakness 
of  Judah,  the  calm  seer  must  have  seemed  al- 
most a  fool ;  but  his  faith  did  not  waver. 
When  Hezekiah  humbled  himself  for  his  sin  in 
becoming  a  plaything  in  the  hands  of  unscrupu- 
lous politicians,  instead  of  hearkening  to  the 
word  of  the  Lord ;  and  when  Sennacherib,  king 
of  Assyria,  roused  by  the  smell  of  blood,  defied 
Jehovah  to  do  His  worst,  then  deliverance 
came,  as  the  prophet  had  foretold. 

"  And  the  angel  of  Jehovah  went  forth,  and 


THE  PROPHET  TO  THE  NATION     121 

smote  in  the  camp  of  the  Assyrians  a  hundred 
and  fourscore  and  five  thousand;  and  when 
meD  arose  early  in  the^morning,  behold  they 
were  all  dead  bodies.  So  Sennacherib,  king  of 
Assyria,  departed,  and  went  and  returned  and 
dwelt  at  Nineveh."  In  these  simple  words  the 
prophet  describes  the  triumph  of  his  life. 
After  long  years  of  apparent  failure,  during 
which  the  people  had  rejected  his  counsel  at 
every  crisis,  and  had  suffered  for  their  folly,  he 
was  permitted  to  succeed  in  the  most  stupendous 
crisis  of  all,  and  by  his  faith  to  lead  his  hapless 
nation  safely  through  their  first  collision  with  a 
world  power. 

This  triumph  came  at  the  very  close  of  the 
eighth  century  before  Christ.  Isaiah  was  no 
longer  young.  So  far  as  his  ministry  to  the 
State  was  concerned,  he  had  finished  his  course, 
he  had  kept  the  faith,  and  henceforth  there 
was  laid  up  for  him  the  crown  of  righteous- 
ness. Tradition  says  that  he  was  sawn  asunder 
by  Manasseh,  who  began  to  rule  in  690  b.  c.  ^ 
During  these  last  years,  according  to  another 
tradition  which  still  appeals  to  conservative 
scholars  as  true,  he  wrote  the  last  twenty- 
seven  chapters  of  the  book  which  bears  his 
name.  These  chapters  are  among  the  most 
precious  in  the  Bible. 


122  ISAIAH 

Liberal  scholars  assign  these  prophecies  to 
other  hands  in  a  later  time,  because  they  differ 
widely  from  the  earlier  prophecies  of  Isaiah, 
both  in  substance  and  in  style ;  but  such  a  dif- 
ference may  well  arise  from  the  changed  out- 
look of  the  prophet,  as  Professor  George  L. 
Robinson  has  shown  in  his  volume  on  Isaiah. 
It  would  bless  us  to  tarry  long  with  these 
closing  chapters,  and  to  let  them  speak  to  our 
hearts,  but  they  have  little  to  do  directly  with 
the  State,  and  so  we  must  turn  away,  with  this 
call  sounding  in  our  ears — "  '  Comfort  ye,  com- 
fort ye  My  people,'  saith  your  God."  Now,  as 
almost  never  before,  the  world  needs  to  know 
God  as  He  revealed  Himself  in  these  closing 
chapters  of  the  Gospel  according  to  Isaiah. 

III.     His  Religious  Principles 

In  striving  to  disentangle  the  political  teach- 
ings of  Isaiah  from  his  religious  principles,  we 
have  been  attempting  the  impossible ;  we  might 
as  well  try  to  study  a  man's  body  apart  from 
his  life  and  his  soul.  As  a  result  we  should 
see  only  a  corpse.  In  almost  every  quotation 
above,  the  entire  context  would  show  that 
the  prophet  viewed  the  most  sordid  political 
schemes  from  above,  and  that  he  approached 
the  most  prosaic  problems  of  state  from  within. 


THE  PROPHET  TO  THE  NATION     123 

as  matters  which  vitally  concerned  the  Spirit. 
Through  such  secular  realities  he  ever  strove 
to  point  men's  eyes  to  the  Holy  One  of  Israel. 

Isaiah  was  no  formal  theologian.  In  keep- 
ing with  all  true  prophets,  he  unfolded  the 
spiritual  truth  which  makes  men  free,  but 
never  without  regard  to  the  needs  of  his  own 
age.  In  modern  phrase,  we  might  call  him  a 
practical  preacher,  ever  drawing  from  his  ex- 
perience the  truths  of  religion,  and  while  they 
were  still  warm,  applying  them  to  the  needs 
of  the  nation,  but  only  as  he  was  moved  by  the 
Holy  Ghost.  It  should  help  us  to  glance  back 
over  the  chapters  from  which  we  have  gleaned 
a  portion  of  his  political  teachings,  and  to  look 
for  the  soil  from  which  they  sprung.  Beneath 
all  the  varied  political  counsels  of  this  prophet, 
lay  certain  changeless  spiritual  principles. 

In  the  teaching  of  Isaiah,  all  history,  and 
especially  that  of  Judah,  was  a  field  in  which 
Jehovah  was  working  His  will.  "  He  also  is 
wise."  His  power  was  unlimited,  and  His 
sway  was  universal.  His  character  and  His 
purpose  constituted  the  one  final  reason  why 
the  nation  should  repent  and  should  trust  only 
in  Him.  Of  this  book  as  a  whole,  we  may  well 
say  what  has  been  well  said  of  chapter  x.  5-34 : 
It  is  the  "  grandest  exposition  of  the  religious 


124  ISAIAH 

interpretation  of  history  that  ever  was  written. n 
The  essential  principles  underlying  this  religious: 
interpretation  of  history  appear  best  in  the  sixth 
chapter,  with  its  account  of  Isaiah's  call,  when 
he  saw  in  the  temple  the  majesty  of  Jehovah, 
the  sin  of  His  people,  and  the  survival  of  the 
remnant. 

"Holy,  holy,  holy,  is  Jehovah  of  hosts." 
The  majesty  of  Jehovah  defies  description,  even 
from  the  pen  of  this  prophet.  It  is  closely 
allied  to  His  holiness,  a  word  which  in  the 
original  appears  to  mean  separation,  distance, 
elevation.  Jehovah  is  separated  from  sinners 
by  a  gulf  which  we  can  cross  only  by  the  way 
which  He  has  prepared.  In  the  phrase  which 
seems  to  have  originated  with  Isaiah,  and  which 
was  ever  upon  his  lips,  Jehovah  is  the  "  Holy 
One  of  Israel."  "The  whole  earth  is  full  of 
His  glory."  Glory  is  a  general  term  to  set 
forth  the  character  of  God.  It  implies  a  heav- 
enly effulgence,  a  light  unto  which  sinful  men 
can  approach  only  as  they  seek  cleansing  from 
their  sins.  "What  glory  is  no  tongue  can  tell, 
not  even  the  tongue  of  an  Isaiah. 

The  God  of  Isaiah  was  no  Infinite  Absentee. 
Majestic  in  holiness  and  glory,  He  was  most 
deeply  concerned  for  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
the  world,  and  was  ever  at  work  bringing  men 


THE  PEOPHET  TO  THE  NATION     125 

and  nations  into  subjection  to  Himself,  that  in 
the  fullness  of  time  the  world  might  see  the 
consummation  of  all  the  forces  which  make  for 
righteousness.  As  the  channel  through  which 
He  was  to  bless  the  world  with  redemption, 
He  had  chosen  Israel  to  be  His  peculiar  people ; 
and  so  He  demanded  of  them  holiness,  separa- 
tion from  the  world,  dedication  to  Himself. 
Because  they  sinned  more  and  more  from  age 
to  age,  He  raised  up  Isaiah  to  warn  them  of 
doom. 

Doom  is  perhaps  the  most  characteristic  note 
of  the  first  part  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  as  com- 
fort is  perhaps  the  dominant  note  of  the  second 
part.  At  the  very  beginning  of  his  ministry, 
he  learned  that  the  people  would  not  heed  his 
call  for  repentance,  and  that  doom  would  fall 
upon  them,  "  until  cities  be  wasted  without  in- 
habitant, and  houses  without  men,  and  the  land 
become  utterly  waste."  But  the  night  which 
was  soon  to  steal  over  the  nation  was  not  to  be 
without  its  star  of  hope,  for  in  the  closing 
words  of  his  call,  he  learned  of  that  other  truth 
which  is  almost  as  characteristic  of  his  teach- 
ings as  the  note  of  doom, — the  truth  about  the 
remnant. 

The  remnant  was  not  the  worst  of  the  nation, 
as  we  might  suppose  from  the  modern  usage  of 


126  ISAIAH 

the  word,  but  the  best.  In  the  history  of  the 
Hebrews,  as  Dr.  Beecher  shows,  the  piety  of 
the  saints  stood  out  all  the  more  brightly 
against  the  black  background  of  the  darkest 
ages ;  and  after  the  Exile,  the  saints  were  to 
survive,  purified  and  strengthened  for  their 
ultimate  task  of  preparing  the  way  for  the 
coming  of  the  King.  After  the  nation  had 
suffered  for  her  sins,  those  who  had  come  to 
know  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  were  to  be  re- 
stored to  Jerusalem ;  and  all  nature  was  to 
rejoice.  Higher  and  still  higher  soared  such 
visions,  until  at  times  the  bard  sang  at  heaven's 
gate ;  but  ere  long  he  must  descend  to  sound 
again  his  trumpet  note  of  doom.  The  song 
was  for  the  saints ;  the  trumpet  call,  for  the 
sinful  nation. 

Instead  of  pausing  to  show  how  Isaiah  ap- 
plied to  political  conditions  this  truth  about 
the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  about  His  unholy  peo- 
ple and  His  holy  remnant,  let  us  rather  turn  to 
his  loftiest  teaching  of  all,  that  concerning  the 
Messianic  King.  As  we  go  from  chapter  to 
chapter,  the  majestic  figure  of  the  King  looms 
before  us  more  and  more  clearly,  until  in  the 
second  half  of  the  book  He  appears  as  the  Suf- 
fering Servant  of  Jehovah.  All  of  us  are 
somewhat  familiar  with  this  truth  in  Isaiah, 


THE  PKOPHET  TO  THE  NATION     12? 

and  we  can  never  know  it  too  well ;  but  we 
often  forget  that  it  grew  but  gradually  before 
the  prophet's  eye,  as  the  unfolding  of  the  seed- 
thought  in  his  call,  and  that  each  stage  of  this 
development  was  intimately  connected  with 
the  needs  of  the  passing  hour. 

The  first  Messianic  promise,  that  all  nations 
shall  flow  unto  the  mount  of  Jehovah,  and 
shall  live  together  in  perfect  peace,  was  given 
at  a  time  when  the  saints  were  hearing  so 
much  about  national  sin  and  doom,  that  they 
might  easily  forget  God's  age-long  Promise. 
The  more  specific  prediction, — "  A  virgin  shall 
conceive,  and  bear  a  son,  and  shall  call  his 
name  Immanuel," — was  given  to  a  king  whose 
weakness  must  have  perplexed  the  saints.  The 
historic  setting  of  another  Messianic  prediction, 
uttered  a  trifle  later,  is  suggested  by  the 
prophet :  u  The  people  that  walked  in  darkness 
have  seen  a  great  light :  they  that  dwelt  in  the 
land  of  the  shadow  of  death,  upon  them  hath 
the  light  shined," — and  then  follows  the  prom- 
ise concerning  the  King  with  Four  Names,  and 
blessed  with  supernatural  endowments,  for  a 
reflection  of  which  men  vainly  looked  at  King 
Ahaz.  "  The  zeal  of  Jehovah  of  hosts  will 
perform  this." 

Isaiah  comforted  the  saints  and  rebuked  the 


128  ISAIAH 

sinful  nation  by  showing  that  the  lowly  state 
of  Judah,  after  doom  had  fallen,  would  prepare 
for  the  coming  of  the  King.  He  would  come 
forth  as  a  shoot  from  the  roots  of  a  tree  which 
had  fallen  before  Jehovah's  massive  arm.  And 
instead  of  the  conditions  which  prevailed  under 
Ahaz,  the  ideal  King  would  bless  the  world 
with  righteousness  and  truth  :  "  They  shall  not 
hurt  nor  destroy  in  all  my  holy  mountain  ;  for 
the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea."  And  in 
the  days  of  King  Hezekiah,  when  the  nation 
was  tottering,  Isaiah  revealed  the  only  hope 
for  the  permanence  of  the  kingdom  :  "  Behold, 
I  lay  in  Zion  for  a  foundation  a  stone,  a  tried 
stone,  a  precious  corner-stone  of  sure  founda- 
tion :  he  that  belie veth  shall  not  be  in  haste." 

From  the  most  casual  study  of  such  pas- 
sages, we  conclude  that  the  Book  of  Isaiah  is 
an  exquisite  pattern,  in  which  the  warp  con- 
sists of  spiritual  principles,  and  the  woof  con- 
sists of  political  and  social  and  other  ethical 
teachings.  Here  the  warp  appears,  and  there 
the  woof,  but  both  are  ever  present.  The  warp 
is  the  more  important,  and  perhaps  the  woof  is 
the  more  prominent,  but  either  one  without  the 
other  could  scarcely  body  forth  the  design  of 
the  master  artist.     At  times  we  cannot  catch 


THE  PEOPHET  TO  THE  NATION     129 

the  design,  but  where  we  see  it  even  dimly,  we 
behold  such  beauty  and  power,  such  fitness  to 
the  needs  of  the  day,  and  such  visions  for  all 
time,  that  we  long  to  learn  still  more  of  the 
truth  as  it  came  to  the  world  through  Isaiah. 

IV.  His  Message  for  Us  To-day 
What  lessons  has  this  king  of  prophets  for 
America  ?  We  might  twist  his  teachings  so  as 
to  correspond  with  passing  events,  and  even 
with  long  stretches  of  the  future,  but  before  we 
proceeded  far  with  such  a  detailed  application, 
we  should  discover  that  "  the  bed  is  shorter 
than  that  a  man  can  stretch  himself  on  it ;  and 
that  the  covering  is  narrower  than  that  a  man 
can  wrap  himself  in  it."  Isaiah  did  not  tell  us 
when  the  European  war  will  end,  but  by  his 
spiritual  interpretation  of  the  history  of  Judah, 
culminating  in  the  Promise  of  the  Messianic 
King,  he  unfolded  the  spiritual  principles  by 
which  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  governs  His 
world. 

The  principles  of  religion  are  changeless,  but 
the  application  of  them  to  conditions  to-day 
must  differ  from  the  application  of  them  to 
different  conditions  to-morrow.  Isaiah  must 
often  have  faced  the  charge  that  he  had 
changed  his  mind :  in  no  two  crises  did  he  give 


130  ISAIAH 

exactly  the  same  counsel ;  he  was  ever  applying 
changeless  principles  to  changing  conditions; 
and  so  he  could  never  be  a  mere  consistent 
traditionalist.  He  dared  to  appear  inconsistent, 
and  so  must  any  man  who  would  become  a 
seer.  Jehovah  to-day  is  the  same  as  twenty- 
six  hundred  years  ago,  our  relation  to  Him 
should  be  much  the  same  as  that  of  the  saints 
in  Isaiah's  times,  and  our  hopes  should  center 
in  the  same  Messiah  of  whom  he  sang;  but 
our  application  of  these  principles  to  passing 
events  must  constantly  change. 

What  have  the  lofty  spiritual  principles  of 
Isaiah  to  do  with  modern  politics?  Much 
every  way !  "  The  powers  that  be  are  ordained 
of  God,"  says  the  Isaiah  of  the  New  Testament. 
Church  and  State  are  separate,  and  neither  is 
subject  to  the  other,  so  long  as  each  confines 
herself  to  her  proper  sphere ;  but  surely  God  is 
ruler  over  the  twain,  and  no  less  surely  He  has 
a  holy  will  for  the  State  as  well  as  for  the 
Church.  If  we  in  America  accept  the  change- 
less spiritual  principles  which  were  partially 
unfolded  by  this  prophet,  and  perfectly  revealed 
in  the  Messiah  Whom  he  foretold  ;  if  we  follow 
men  who  seek  the  wisdom  which  cometh  down 
from  above,  so  that  they  may  apply  these 
changeless  principles  to  changing  conditions, 


THE  PEOPHET  TO  THE  NATION     131 

we  may  expect  to  share  in  the  glories  of  that 
future  of  which  Isaiah  sang.  But  if  we  do  not 
hear  the  voice  of  God  saying  to  us,  "  This  is 
the  way,  walk  ye  in  it,"  we  shall  not  escape 
from  doom  worse  than  that  which  fell  upon 
ancient  Judah.  "  If  ye  will  not  believe,  surely 
ye  shall  not  be  established." 


132 


MICAH 


The  Rebukes  of  Micah. 
(Chapters  II  and  III.) 


:  Prepare  two  similar  charts,  showing  bis 
Promises  and  his  Demands.) 


VI 

MICAH :  THE  SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE 
PROPHETS 

MICAH  was  the  prophet  of  the  com- 
mon people.  He  arose  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighth  century  before 
Christ,  probably  a  trifle  later  than  Amos  and 
Hosea,  and  about  the  same  time  as  Isaiah. 
The  age  of  Micah  in  its  smaller  way  was  much 
like  our  own.  A  half  century  of  peace  had 
brought  much  of  prosperity,  but  the  prophet's 
eye  could  see  that  there  were  storms  ahead. 
To  avert  these  storms,  or  to  guide  the  people 
through  them,  Jehovah  raised  up  two  men, 
Isaiah  and  Micah.  The  major  prophet  was  a 
man  of  the  city,  born  in  Jerusalem,  probably  in 
a  home  of  wealth  and  refinement.  The  minor 
prophet,  so  styled  because  his  extant  writings 
are  brief,  was  born  in  a  village,  in  a  lowly 
home,  and  probably  he  died  as  he  lived,  a  poor 
man. 

The  messages  of  these  two  men  differed  far. 
Isaiah  was  gifted  with  a  wider  outlook  and  a 
133 


134  MICAH 

broader  sympathy,  so  that  he  could  scan  the 
field  of  world  politics  ;  whereas  Micah,  equally 
inspired,  confined  his  gaze  largely  to  Judah 
and  Israel.  Isaiah  could  speak  to  his  nation  as 
a  whole ;  whereas  Micah  felt  most  keenly  the 
wrongs  of  his  own  class,  the  common  folk. 
Isaiah,  like  Paul,  addressed  particularly  the 
men  of  the  city ;  whereas  Micah,  like  his  com- 
ing King,  spoke  much  to  men  of  the  field. 
Isaiah  was  the  orator,  with  wide  sympathy, 
rich  imagination  and  deep  fervour;  whereas 
Micah,  even  when  he  soared,  went  on  a  lower 
wing,  and  at  times  he  became  almost  as  rough 
as  Amos  appeared.  "What  social  message  has 
this  lowly  seer  for  us  ? 

The  first  chapter  may  be  viewed  as  the 
introduction  to  the  book.  The  prophet  here 
seems  to  owe  more  than  a  trifle  to  that "  Grand 
Arraignment "  in  the  first  chapter  of  Isaiah, 
but  Micah  looks  at  sin  from  his  own  peculiar 
angle.  After  pouring  out  burning  words 
against  Judah  for  the  sins  which  shall  speedily 
bring  on  doom,  he  voices  his  own  grief  that  so 
harsh  a  message  should  ever  be  needed.  Such 
is  the  ideal  for  the  social  prophet :  plain  teach- 
ing of  sin  and  judgment,  but  always  with 
groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered,  and  some- 
times with  tears  which  cannot  be  controlled. 


SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  PROPHETS   135 

1.     Sins  Rebuked 

The  remainder  of  the  book  falls  into  three 
parts,  each  of  which  consists  of  two  chapters. 
In  the  second  and  third  chapters  Micah  gives 
his  bill  of  particulars,  in  support  of  his  general 
indictment.  The  sin  against  which  he  set  him- 
self most  strongly  was  that  of  oppression,  and 
the  first  class  against  whom  he  turned  was  the 
unworthy  rich.  Like  the  Master  Himself,  our 
friend  had  no  quarrel  with  the  worthy  rich, 
but  he  knew  the  peril  of  wealth,  and  he  saw 
that  many  who  were  subjected  to  that  peril 
quickly  succumbed.  He  insisted  that  too  often 
the  worst  citizens  were  not  the  wretched  poor, 
who  had  everything  to  drag  them  down,  but  the 
idle  rich,  who  had  everything  which  is  supposed 
to  lift  men  up.  Doubtless  there  were  then  as  now 
bad  men  among  the  poor,  but  the  proportion 
appears  to  have  been  greater  among  the  rich. 

The  specific  sin  of  these  idle  rich  was  op- 
pression of  the  poor.  Let  us  not  style  it  a 
crime,  for  it  seems  not  to  have  been  counted 
an  offense  against  the  laws  of  man.  Some 
social  ills  are  crimes ;  all  are  sins.  They  op- 
pressed the  common  people,  who  alone  were 
weak  enough  to  submit.  Prosperity,  due  in 
large  measure  to  long  years  of  peace  under 
Uzziah,  had  brought  increase  of   trade,   and 


136  MICAH 

this  increase  had  led  to  swollen  fortunes.  The 
newly  rich,  then  as  now,  became  infatuated 
with  their  sudden  fortune,  and  became  greedy 
for  still  more  gain.  There  appears  to  have 
been  no  Jubilee  to  restore  the  land  to  its 
rightful  owners,  and  so  the  source  of  national 
wealth,  the  soil,  appears  to  have  been  shifting 
faster  and  faster  into  the  hands  which  needed 
it  least  and  would  manage  it  worst.  This  was 
only  one  of  the  sins  of  the  idle  rich. 

These  unworthy  rich  could  have  done  little 
if  they  had  not  been  aided  by  the  rulers,  whom 
God  had  ordained  to  safeguard  the  rights  of 
the  common  people.  Like  his  more  famous 
contemporary,  Micah  made  no  charge  against 
King  Hezekiah,  who  seems  to  have  been  al- 
most helpless  in  the  hands  of  unscrupulous  sub- 
ordinates. These  nobles,  weakened  by  daily 
indulgence  in  many  vices,  amenable  to  bribes 
and  even  courting  them,  had  neither  the  power 
nor  the  desire  to  curb  the  growing  rapacity  of 
the  idle  rich.  Micah  compared  such  exploitation 
of  the  poor  to  a  cannibal  feast.  No  milder  term 
could  express  the  horrible  truth.  In  the  sight 
of  God,  ignorant  barbarians  who  killed  their 
foes  in  battle  and  lived  on  their  flesh,  were 
less  guilty  than  so-called  cultured  classes  who 
feasted  on  the  blood  of  God's  suffering  poor. 


SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  PEOPHETS   13? 

Such  oppression  is  always  to  be  traced  at 
last  to  the  door  of  the  Church.  Here  in  Micah 
is  the  age-long  trinity  of  evil :  the  idle  rich, 
the  unworthy  ruler,  the  false  prophet;  and 
the  worst  of  these  is  the  false  prophet.  Liv- 
ing on  the  bounty  of  the  idle  rich,  basking  in 
the  favour  of  the  corrupt  nobility,  the  false 
prophet  found  it  easy  to  justify  the  wicked  for 
a  reward,  to  wink  at  their  vices,  and  to  share 
in  their  cannibal  feasts.  He , was  an  expert  in 
the  gentle  art  of  soothing  the  troubled  con- 
science, including  his  own,  without  causing 
anguish  for  sin;  and  like  Balaam  of  old,  he 
could  bolster  up  an  unspeakable  cause  by  ap- 
pearing to  give  it  the  sanction  of  Almighty 
God.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  our  prophet,  him- 
self doubtless  the  victim  of  social  and  industrial  v  . 
wrong,  cried  out  against  prostitution  of  his  v_- 
holy  calling?  This  ghastly  triumvirate  is  ever  . 
with  us,  and  if  we  sit  with  voices  dumb,  while 
all  about  us  the  poor  are  crying  out  beneath 
burdens  too  heavy  for  the  children  of  men  to 
bear,  we  shall  not  escape  God's  righteous  judg- 
ment. 

II     Blessings  Promised 

The  fourth  and  fifth  chapters  contain  glow- 
ing promises,   largely  for  the  common   folk. 


138  MICAH 

Micah  was  no  mere  prophet  of  judgment,  no 
destructive  critic,  no  pessimist,  to  whom  one 
could  say  with  Homer — "  Prophet  of  evil, 
never  yet  hadst  thou  a  cheerful  word  for  me  ; 
to  mark  the  signs  of  coming  evil  is  thy  chief 
delight;  good  dost  thou  ne'er  foretell,  nor 
bring  to  pass."  Perhaps  the  most  of  us  who 
are  striving  to  correct  the  ills  of  the  world  are 
failing  because  we  are  working  without  hope 
and  without  a  song.  We  are  prophets  of 
gloom,  but  the  true  social  prophet  is  ever  a 
seer.  After  leading  his  people  for  a  time 
through  the  shadows,  Micah  brought  them 
out  suddenly  into  a  large,  bright  place,  where 
the  atmosphere  was  new  and  strange.  He 
predicted  a  coming  day  when  conditions 
should  be  reversed,  when  there  should  be  a 
flood  of  blessings  for  the  common  folk,  not 
for  them  alone,  but  since  they  had  been  suf- 
fering most,  they  were  most  to  enjoy  their 
new  freedom. 

The  first  blessing  of  the  golden  age  was  to 
be  peace,  world-wide  and  perpetual  peace. 
This  promise  is  almost  the  same  as  that  in 
Isaiah,  but  even  if  Micah  quoted  from  his  elder 
brother,  he  gave  the  promise  a  new  emphasis : 
the  blessings  of  peace  were  to  be  largely  for 
the  common  folk.     This  promise  might  be  rep- 


SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  PEOPHETS  139 

resented  for  childlike  folk  by  the  figure  of  a 
star :  religion,  which  is  another  name  for  peace, 
was  to  become  world-wide ;  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  instead  of  submitting  their  disputes  to 
the  unjust  decision  of  the  sword,  were  to  choose 
Jehovah  as  their  Arbitrator ;  they  were  to  cease 
preparing  to  fight ;  they  were  to  cease  actual 
fighting  ;  and  they  were  even  to  cease  training 
their  children  to  fight.  Such  peace  was  to  be 
a  wonderful  gift  of  God's  love.  This  humble 
prophet  has  a  message  for  the  world  to-day. 
Has  the  Christian  religion  yet  risen  to  the 
height  where  one  can  say  that  civilization  is  a 
synonym  for  peace  ?  Ah,  No  !  And  when  a 
modern  prophet,  such  as  Mr.  "Wilson,  dares  to 
proclaim  the  gospel  of  peace,  the  world  scoffs 
at  the  dreamer. 

Our  humble  friend  placed  his  finger  upon  a 
dark  truth  too  much  neglected  in  this  age  when 
the  powers  are  rushing  blindly  towards  bank- 
ruptcy. In  war  those  suffer  most  who  are  least 
able  to  suffer,  and  in  peace  those  should  profit 
most  who  have  least  to  lose  in  war.  In  war 
the  rich  may  thrive,  and  at  the  worst  they  can 
retain  a  shadow  of  existence ;  but  what  of  the 
poor  ?  We  must  draw  the  curtain  over  their 
sufferings,  but  not  before  we  learn  from  Micah, 
and  from  his  Lord,  that  the  only  way  to  insure 


140  MICAH 

the  blessings  of  peace  is  to  cease  from  war  and 
from  preparations  for  war.  In  this  coming 
prosperity,  made  possible  by  the  blessing  of 
God  upon  an  age  so  loving  that  it  shall  cease 
from  war,  blessings  are  to  be  equitably  distrib- 
uted. It  is  not  for  us  in  the  pulpit,  more  than 
for  our  friend  of  old,  to  become  judges  over 
these  matters  of  pure  economics,  but  it  is  for 
us,  as  it  was  for  him,  a  sacred  duty  to  insist 
that  there  is  a  fair  system  for  distributing  the 
fruits  of  man's  toil,  and  that  men  shall  not  rest 
until  they  have  found  that  fair  system,  and 
have  followed  it  to  its  blessed  end. 

Christian  men  everywhere  are  seeking  to 
solve  this  problem,  and  strange  to  tell,  the 
wisest  thinkers  of  our  time  have  led  us  to  the 
point  where  Micah  leaves  us,  namely,  that 
every  toiler  should  have  a  home  of  his  own> 
not  a  mansion  and  not  a  hovel,  but  a  home, 
with  modest  comforts  and  absolute  privacy; 
and  that  he  should  have  leisure  in  the  cool  of 
the  day,  after  every  reasonable  task  has  been 
well  done,  to  sit  at  ease  under  his  own  vine 
and  fig  tree.  In  modern  phrase,  to  every  man 
who  does  his  best,  whether  he  earns  his  way  or 
not,  society  owes  a  comfortable  living,  and  an 
outlook  upon  the  higher  life.  Such  a  man  is 
not  poor.     He  is  no  industrial  slave.     There  is 


SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  PROPHETS  141 

no  one  to  make  him  afraid:  no  idle  rich  to 
browbeat  him,  no  corrupt  ruler  to  entice  from 
him  his  liberty,  no  false  prophet  to  justify  his 
oppressor  for  a  reward. 

Peace  and  prosperity  !  What  could  do  more 
for  the  common  people  ?  Almost  nothing  here 
below,  we  all  agree,  but  with  a  sigh  we  exclaim 
that  even  if  this  golden  dream  came  true,  the 
common  folk  would  not  be  worthy.  But  our 
humble  prophet,  like  our  Lord,  cherished  for 
the  average  man  a  far  higher  respect  than  we 
can  muster,  as  we  learn  from  Micah's  last  bless- 
ing, the  greatest  of  all,  the  one  which  is  to 
make  the  others  possible.  Peace  and  pros- 
perity were  to  depend  upon  the  progress  of 
Zion,  and  that  was  to  depend  upon  a  Person. 
King  Hezekiah  might  be  powerless  to  relieve 
the  oppressed,  but  One  mightier  by  far  than  he 
was  to  arise,  the  One  "Whom  we  know  as  the 
Christ. 

The  Messiah  was  to  be  of  rustic  and  popular 
origin.  This  truth  is  so  familiar  to  us  that  we 
have  ceased  to  wonder,  but  it  would  impress  us 
more  if  we  remembered  that  the  most  definite 
prediction  of  this  lowly  origin  came  through 
the  prophet  of  the  common  people.  The  wise 
men  whom  Herod  consulted  about  the  birth- 
place of  the  Christ  quoted  from  memory  Micah 


142  MICAH 

v.  2.  The  other  side  of  the  truth, — that  the 
King  was  to  be  the  Wonderful  Counsellor,  the 
Mighty  God,  the  Everlasting  Father,  the  Prince 
of  Peace, — might  well  come  through  Isaiah, 
the  noble  son  of  Jerusalem ;  but  when  the 
Spirit  wished  to  point  men's  eyes  towards 
Bethlehem,  He  spoke  through  Micah.  The 
prophet  who  hailed  from  a  village  somewhat 
like  Bethlehem,  assured  his  weary  fellow  toil- 
ers that  the  coming  Messiah,  even  in  His  birth, 
would  be  one  of  themselves.  The  social  prophet 
of  to-day  finds  in  this  same  truth  his  surest  com- 
fort for  the  woes  of  the  oppressed.  "  The  poor 
have  the  Gospel  preached  to  them." 

This  coming  child  of  a  little  town  was  not  to 
be  merely  a  second  Micah,  grieved  at  the 
wrongs  of  the  world,  but  powerless  to  right 
them.  Ah,  No !  the  coming  One  was  to  be  a 
King!  "His  goings  forth  are  from  of  old, 
from  everlasting.  .  .  .  And  He  shall  stand 
and  feed  His  flock  in  the  strength  of  Jehovah, 
in  the  majesty  of  the  name  of  Jehovah  His 
God ;  and  they  shall  abide,  for  now  shall  He  be 
great  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth.  And  this 
Man  shall  be  our  peace."  Too  long  have  men 
been  striving  to  persuade  the  powers  of  the 
earth  to  lay  down  their  arms ;  too  long  have 
statesmen  been  striving  to  manufacture  pros- 


SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OP  THE  PEOPHETS  143 

perity;  now  let  us  turn,  as  we  should  have 
turned  long  since,  to  the  Bible,  and  we  shall 
find  that  this  Man,  this  Jesus  Christ,  shall  solve 
every  problem  of  society.  Prosperity  follows 
from  peace,  and  peace  comes  through  Him. 
Here  is  our  social  gospel,  our  only  solution  for 
the  wrongs  of  the  world.  "  This  Man  shall  be 
our  peace." 

III.      Virtues  Demanded 

In  the  last  two  chapters  of  our  little  book 
Micah  turns  to  a  still  different  phase  of  his  work 
as  an  ethical  teacher.  He  demands  that  the 
people,  including  his  own  class,  shall  be  worthy 
of  God's  blessing.  He  does  not  curry  favour 
with  his  own  class  by  ignoring  their  weaknesses 
and  sins,  while  he  paints  for  them  a  charming 
picture  of  future  blessings ;  he  does  not  console 
them  for  present  hardships  by  merely  depicting 
the  doom  of  their  oppressors.  Micah  denounces 
sin  in  high  places,  and  he  pities  suffering  in  low 
places,  but  he  is  just :  he  insists  that  the  entire 
people,  common  as  well  as  select,  must  undergo 
a  change  of  heart.  Jehovah  cannot  bless  them 
until  by  His  grace  they  become  worthy.  Here^ 
is  a  note  which  is  absent  from  the  call  of  many 
a  social  prophet,  who  wonders  why  he  fails. 
He  has  no  eye  for  the  sins  of  the  common  folk, 


144  MICAH 

and  no  vision  to  allure  them  towards  the 
heights.     Is  not  he,  too,  a  false  prophet  ? 

The  sixth  chapter  of  Micah  is  one  of  the 
most  powerful  in  all  prophetic  literature;  it 
contains  the  heart  of  the  social  teaching  of  the 
Old  Testament.  The  prophet  throws  his  mes- 
sage into  the  form  of  a  controversy,  in  which 
the  mountains  are  called  upon  to  act  as  wit- 
nesses, thus  anticipating  the  teaching  of  Paul 
that  nature  shares  in  the  evil  wrought  by  sin. 
This  device  is  not  new  in  prophetic  writing,  but 
the  emphasis  here  is  unique.  Isaiah  and  Amos 
have  presented  Jehovah  in  controversy  with 
His  people  concerning  their  sins,  but  Micah 
presents  Him  in  controversy  with  them  con- 
cerning their  so-called  worship,  which  in  the 
sight  of  God  is  sin.  The  true  social  gospel  ever 
insists  that  formal  worship  is  good,  but  that  it 
is  far  from  all  of  man's  duty  to  God,  and  that 
alone  it  is  worse  than  worthless. 

If  we  wish  to  follow  this  controversy,  we 
must  watch  the  frequent  changes  of  speakers, — 
a  characteristic  of  Hebrew  literature.  Here  is 
one  division  of  this  message,  given  as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  sort  of  work  which  each  student 
of  the  Bible  should  do  for  himself.  First  of  all, 
the  prophet  appeals  to  the  mountains  and  hills 
as  witnesses.     Then  Jehovah,  speaking  through 


SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  PROPHETS  145 

the  prophet,  expostulates  with  His  people  for 
their  abuse  of  His  mercies.  The  people  respond 
with  the  pathetic  query  :  what  doth  Jehovah 
require  of  us  more  than  we  are  doing  ;  does  He 
ask  greater  sacrifices,  and  greater  still,  even  the 
fruit  of  the  body  for  the  sin  of  the  soul  ?  The 
prophet  replies,  in  one  of  the  noblest  passages 
of  the  Old  Testament,  "  He  hath  showed  thee, 
O  man,  what  is  good  ;  and  what  doth  Jehovah 
require  of  thee  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love 
kindness,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God?" 
Then  Jehovah  speaks  in  strong  rebuke ;  and 
the  prophet  replies,  speaking  now  for  the  peo- 
ple, with  humble  confession  of  their  sins,  and 
speaking  again  for  himself,  with  strong  confi- 
dence, which  soars  at  last  into  a  triumphant 
song  of  trust. 

Eising  out  of  the  confusion  caused  by  our 
rapid  transit  through  this  mountain  region, 
three  great  demands  emerge :  for  justice,  for 
manhood  and  for  trust.  In  using  such  key- 
words, we  must  remember  that  the  virtues  de- 
manded in  this  living  book  are  loftier  by  far 
than  any  of  our  words  about  them.  These  de- 
mands came  to  a  people  who  had  been  taught 
by  a  false  prophetic  school  that  religion  con- 
sisted in  making  sacrifices,  and  that  when  Je- 
hovah was  displeased,  it  was  a  demand  for  larger 


146  MICAH 

and  more  costly  sacrifices.  The  people  con- 
fused ritual,  a  ritual  divinely  ordained,  with 
piety ;  they  needed  to  learn  that  even  a  holy 
ritual,  when  divorced  from  a  holy  life,  was  a 
stench  in  the  nostrils  of  God.  Is  there  no  call 
to-day  for  an  echo  of  this  teaching  ? 

"  What  does  Jehovah  require  of  us  ? "  On 
every  hand  one  hears  the  eager  cry.  Men  have 
tested  the  world's  solutions  of  their  problems, 
and  now  they  long  to  try  God's  way,  but  they 
know  not  how.  They  know  that  religion 
brings  rebuke  for  every  sin,  and  that  it  is  filled 
to  overflowing  with  promises  which  culminate 
in  Jesus  Christ,  but  they  ask  how  they  can  se- 
cure these  blessings  for  themselves,  despite  their 
sins.  "  Shall  we  give  up  a  little  more  time,  a 
little  more  money  ?  "  Yes,  perhaps,  but  peace 
lies  not  thither.  "  Shall  we  give  up  still  more  ?  " 
Yes,  perhaps.  "  Shall  we  give  our  children  for 
the  work  across  the  sea  ?  "  Yes,  perhaps,  but 
religion  demands  more  than  any  of  these,  or 
all ;  religion  is  love  for  God  and  love  for  man, 
love  made  possible  by  the  death  of  Christ. 
Such  love  finds  expression  in  social  service,  and 
Christian  social  service  is  no  more  of  a  sacrifice 
than  the  fruit  upon  the  tree. 

On  November  20,  1908,  there  fell  asleep  in 
the  city  of  Cairo,  Egypt,  a  man  who  for  two- 


SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  PEOPHETS  147 

score  years  and  three  had  been  serving  in  that 
godless  land  as  a  foreign  missionary,  and  who 
during  all  those  years  had  shown  by  life  and 
speech  the  only  remedy  for  social  ills,  even  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  When  the  relatives  of 
this  social  prophet,  the  late  Dr.  William  Har- 
vey, father-in-law  of  Professor  George  L.  Robin- 
son, erected  a  suitable  monument  over  his  re- 
mains, with  rare  discernment  they  chose  as  an 
inscription  the  key-note  of  our  little  book, — 
"  What  doth  Jehovah  require  of  thee  but  to  do 
justly,  to  love  kindness,  and  to  walk  humbly 
with  thy  God?"  Dr.  George  Adam  Smith 
says  that  this  is  the  greatest  verse  in  the  Old 
Testament,  and  that  it  is  excelled  in  the  New 
only  by  the  words  of  the  Master :  "  Come  unto 
me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and 
I  will  give  you  rest." 

Let  us  look  more  closely  at  the  three  de- 
mands of  Micah.  First  of  all,  as  the  bed-rock 
of  true  character  in  man  and  in  society,  is  jus- 
tice. In  the  homes  of  the  rich  were  treasures 
of  wickedness ;  in  their  places  of  business  were 
unjust  balances ;  in  their  mouths  were  lies  to 
increase  their  profits ;  in  their  hearts  was  the 
love  of  gold.  The  greatest  offenders  were  the 
rich  and  strong,  but  Micah  called  upon  the 
people  as  a  whole  to  learn  the  old,  hard  les- 


148  MICAH 

son, — that  Jehovah  delights  in  justice.  And 
lest  men  forget,  he  painted  in  unmistakable 
hues  a  picture  of  the  doom  certain  to  fall  upon 
those  who  perverted  God's  bounty,  a  doom 
which  was  to  include  loss  of  power  to  enjoy 
the  fruits  of  iniquity. 

Rising  out  of  this  fundamental  teaching  about 
justice  is  a  still  higher  call, — for  unadulterated 
manhood.  "  The  godly  man  is  perished  out  of 
the  earth ; "  the  best  of  men  is  no  better  than 
a  briar;  the  typical  neighbour  is  not  to  be 
trusted,  or  the  typical  friend,  or  even  the  wife 
of  one's  bosom ;  the  sons  and  the  daughters  in 
the  home  rise  up  against  the  parents ;  "  a  man's 
enemies  are  the  men  of  his  own  house."  Surely 
manhood  then  was  rotten,  and  no  less  surely 
the  land  must  suffer  until  this  putrefying  mass 
of  so-called  manhood  was  cleaned  and  healed, 
or  else  buried  and  forgotten.  But  how  restore 
fallen  manhood  ?  By  restoring  the  true  relig- 
ion of  Jehovah.  It  is  noteworthy  that  our 
friend  demanded  in  his  fellows  the  same  lofty 
type  of  manhood  which  he  had  pointed  out  in 
the  coming  Messiah.  "  And  this  man  shall  be 
our  peace." 

The  third  demand,  and  the  highest,  is  for 
trust  in  God.  This  demand  is  not  phrased  in 
hard,  cold  words,  but  couched  in  the  most  win 


SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  PKOPHETS  149 

ning  form.  In  that  verse  which  strikes  the 
key-note  of  the  book,  the  character  which  is 
pleasing  to  God  reaches  its  highest  expression 
in  its  humble  trust.  This  is  the  spirit  which 
made  possible  the  life  and  work  of  Micah.  In 
his  closing  words  he  assures  us  that  whatever 
others  may  do,  he  will  trust  in  Jehovah.  And 
he  pours  out  his  heart  in  a  song  so  tender  and 
yet  so  mighty  that  one  thinks  of  the  sweet 
singer  of  Israel.  He  trusts  not  for  himself 
alone,  but  for  his  people,  the  common  people 
most  of  all,  that  they  shall  be  guarded  from 
every  ill ;  he  beseeches  the  Shepherd  of  Israel 
to  feed  His  flock  as  of  old,  and  to  lead  them 
tenderly  in  the  way  everlasting.  He  lays  bare 
the  secret  of  such  trust:  he  relies  upon  the 
mercy  of  his  God,  "Who  pardons  iniquity  and 
passes  over  transgressions,  Who  casts  the  sins 
of  His  people  into  the  depths  of  the  sea. 

Justice,  manhood,  trust ;  and  the  greatest  of 
these  is  trust.  What  have  these  to  do  with 
social  service?  Everything!  With  such  stal- 
wart character  on  every  side,  social  problems 
would  lose  their  bane ;  without  such  character, 
no  social  program  can  raise  the  dead.  Herein 
lies  the  fallacy  of  Socialism,  and  of  many  an- 
other proffered  panacea :  external  conditions 
can  never  cleanse  man's  heart ;  but  if  a  man's 


150  MICAH 

heart  is  cleansed  by  God,  that  man  will  right 
the  wrongs  about  him.  First  make  the  tree 
good,  and  then  the  fruit  will  be  good.  Such  is 
the  teaching  of  Micah. 

IV.    A  BircPs-Eye  View 

Let  us  glance  back  over  the  long  way  which 
we  have  travelled  together.  We  have  seen 
our  friend  as  the  uncompromising  foe  of  sin 
wherever  he  saw  it,  and  in  his  time  he  could 
see  it  most  in  the  highest  places.  But  he  was 
no  narrow  agitator,  fomenting  class  hatred  and 
strife;  he  had  nothing  of  that  modern  spirit 
which  delights  in  the  poor  because  they  are 
poor,  and  despises  the  rich  because  they  are 
rich.  He  had  the  spirit  of  the  Master,  Who 
was  no  respecter  of  persons,  Who  loved  both 
the  poor  and  the  rich.  The  fact  remains,  how- 
ever, that  Micah  thought  most  tenderly  of  those 
who  most  needed  sympathy  and  strength,  the 
suffering  poor;  and  that  he  promised  to  them 
blessings  rich  and  vast,  culminating  in  the  per- 
sonal Redeemer.  Unlike  many  a  social  agi- 
tator, he  demanded  that  the  people  become 
worthy  of  God's  favour,  and  that  they  live  in 
quiet,  humble  trust. 

Such  is  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  message; 
let  us  turn  back  still  further  and  bid  farewell 


SOCIAL  MESSAGE  OF  THE  PEOPHETS  151 

to  the  man.  In  the  olden  time  a  child  came  to 
brighten  a  humble  cottage  ;  as  his  parents  were 
neither  wealthy  nor  famous,  he  must  have 
begun  early  to  toil  with  his  hands ;  he  may 
have  grown  to  manhood  with  little  of  the 
learning  of  the  schools.  He  took  small  inter- 
est, apparently,  in  world  politics.  In  an  age 
when  religion  was  supposed  to  be  almost 
wholly  a  matter  of  theory  and  of  form,  he 
concerned  himself  largely  with  practical  piety, 
and  yet  in  some  mysterious  fashion,  he  pre- 
sented a  type  of  practical  religion  which  illus- 
trated a  broad  and  lasting  theory  never  to  be 
found  by  men  who  sought  theory  alone.  Many 
who  were  noble  and  mighty  counted  him  a 
failure,  perhaps  because  he  was  one  of  the  com- 
mon people,  whose  wrongs  he  felt,  whose 
dreams  he  shared,  and  for  whose  sins  he  wept. 
For  them  he  lived  ;  to  them  he  preached  ;  for 
them  he  would  gladly  have  died. 

Whose  portrait  is  this  ?  From  a  distance 
one  takes  it  to  be  the  form  of  Micah,  but  on 
closer  view  one  beholds  such  beauty,  such 
majesty,  such  divinity,  that  one  is  constrained 
to  cry  out — "  My  Lord  and  My  God  !  "  Let  us 
not  strive  to  trace  too  minutely  the  details  of 
this  resemblance ;  let  us  rather  awake  to  the 
broad    fact,  and   in  it  rejoice.     Let  us   who 


152  MICAH 

preach  rejoice,  also,  over  the  way  in  which  our 
Lord  used  this  child  of  humble  birth.  With 
no  such  gifts  and  graces  as  were  showered 
upon  Isaiah,  Micah  has  left  to  the  world  a 
body  of  the  loftiest  ethical  teaching,  and  an 
ideal  which  is  still  far  above  us.  If  we  go  to 
our  people  in  the  spirit  of  Micah,  we  shall  lead 
them  ere  long  to  the  foot  of  the  cross ;  and 
"  this  Man  shall  be  our  peace." 


vn 

THE  FALSE  PEOPHETS :  HYPOCEITES 

THE  downfall  of  Judah  and  Israel  was 
largely  due  to  the  false  prophets. 
Under  this  heading  we  might  include 
those  who  promoted  the  worship  of  alien 
deities,  such  as  Baal,  but  for  various  reasons  we 
shall  do  well  to  think  now  only  of  those  who 
professed  to  speak  for  Jehovah.  If  to  a  man 
they  had  hearkened  to  Him,  and  had  correctly 
interpreted  His  will,  they  might  have  led  their 
people  out  into  righteousness  and  peace ;  but 
they  were  blind  leaders  of  the  blind,  and  so 
their  people  fell. 

These  false  prophets  of  Jehovah  were  related 
to  the  true  somewhat  as  hypocrites  are  related 
to  genuine  believers.  It  is  possible  that  many 
a  false  prophet,  like  many  a  man  whom  we 
jtoosely  style  a  hypocrite,  was  self-deceived, 
and  that  he  lived  and  died  under  the  fond  de- 
lusion that  he  was  a  worthy  ambassador  of 
Jehovah ;  but  it  is  probable  that  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  these  men  were  gross  deceivers,  and 
153 


154  THE  FALSE  PEOPHETS 

that  they  were  conscious  of  no  relation  to  Je- 
hovah which  could  give  them  a  right  to  speak 
in  His  name.  Whether  conscious  of  their 
blindness  or  not,  they  could  never  have  been 
safe  spiritual  leaders. 

The  harm  wrought  by  these  men  not  sent 
from  God  was  due  to  their  number  as  well  as 
to  their  .  treachery.  As  the  nation  gradually 
began  to  disintegrate,  their  number  waxed 
greater  and  greater,  until  at  times  it  may  have 
exceeded  that  of  the  true.  They  attracted 
comparatively  small  notice  from  Isaiah,  but 
they  emerged  into  prominence  in  the  writings 
of  his  contemporary,  Micah.  They  flourished 
in  the  days  of  Jeremiah,  and  they  received 
more  than  a  little  attention  from  Ezekiel,  from 
Zephaniah  and  from  Zechariah.  Surely  the 
nation  which  had  been  called  to  be  holy  was 
going  to  pieces,  when  there  was  in  the  hearts 
of  the  popular  religious  leaders  more  of  hy- 
pocrisy than  of  genuine  religion. 

The  false  prophets  came  into  their  own  after 
religion  had  become  somewhat  highly  organ- 
ized, and  when  the  schools  of  the  prophets 
appear  to  have  become  an  accepted  part  of  the 
national  life.  According  to  Professor  James 
Stalker,  one  of  the  few  modern  writers  upon 
this  theme,  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  false 


HYPOCEITES  155 

prophets  was  in  large  measure  possible  because 
of  the  work  of  these  schools,  corresponding  to 
our  theological  seminaries,  where  the  finished 
product  was  a  "  manufactured  ministry."  ^ — - 

I.     Their  Independence  of  God 

The  main  characteristic  of  these  man-made 
preachers  was  their  practical  independence  of 
Jehovah.  The  true  prophets  were  men  sent 
from  God,  and  so  far  as  they  were  loyal,  they 
were  absolutely  dependent  upon  Jehovah, — for 
their  holiness,  for  their  call,  and  for  their  in- 
spiration. But  the  false  had  no  such  sense  of 
dependence.  So  far  as  Jehovah  was  concerned, 
they  were  free.  " '  Behold  I  am  against  them 
that  prophesy  lying  dreams,'  saith  Jehovah, 
'  and  do  tell  them,  and  cause  My  people  to  err 
by  their  lies,  and  by  their  vain  boasting :  yet 
I  sent  them  not,  nor  commanded  them ;  neither 
do  they  profit  this  people  at  all,'  saith  Jehovah." 

As  a  class  these  men  were  not  holy.  Some 
of  them  were  doubtless  not  openly  immoral; 
they  appear  to  have  been  guilty  of  nothing 
more  flagrant  than  worldliness.  If  they  were 
no  better  than  many  of  their  followers,  they 
were  no  worse;  and  if  their  ideals  were  no 
higher,  at  least  they  were  no  lower!  What 
more  could  one  ask  ?    With  a  low  sense  of  sin 


156  THE  FALSE  PEOPHETS 

and  of  holiness,  even  though  they  might  not 
openly  offend  against  the  letter  of  the  law,  how 
could  they  represent  Jehovah,  "Who  is  positive 
in  His  holiness?  "'Therefore,  behold,  I  am 
against  the  prophets,'  saith  Jehovah." 

The  great  majority  of  these  men,  however, 
were  vile  in  heart  and  in  life.  Isaiah  charged 
them  with  love  of  drink  and  of  sensual  pleasure. 
Zephaniah  said  that  they  were  light  and  treach- 
erous. Jeremiah  was  even  more  severe :  "  They 
commit  adultery,  and  walk  in  lies,  and  they 
strengthen  the  hand  of  evil-doers,  so  that  none 
doth  return  from  his  wickedness ;  they  are  as 
Sodom."  What  lofty  ideals  and  attainments 
for  men  who  were  to  be  the  guardians  of  the 
public  morals !  If  the  people  had  been  holy, 
such  men  would  have  been  a  stench  in  their 
nostrils. 

Because  these  men  were  not  sent  from  God, 
they  knew  nothing  of  a  call.  Herein  lay  the 
secret  of  their  lack  of  dependence  upon  Jeho- 
vah. "I  sent  not  these  prophets,  yet  they 
ran ;  I  spake  not  unto  them,  yet  they  prophe- 
sied." Doubtless  they  imagined  that  in  this 
respect  they  were  on  an  equal  plane  with  Jere- 
miah himself.  They  must  have  known  that 
they  had  entered  their  sacred  office  without 
divine  authority,  but  they  may  have  thought 


HYPOCRITES  157 

that  the  true  prophet,  whom  they  considered 
their  rival,  was  equally  without  authority  from 
above.  Hypocrites  are  ever  prone  to  believe 
that  even  the  saints  are  hypocrites. 

The  false  prophets  knew  nothing  of  inspira- 
tion. When  Jeremiah  complained  about  their 
smooth  sayings,  which  captivated  the  hearts  of 
the  people,  Jehovah  told  him  something  of  their 
wiles :  "  They  prophesy  unto  you  a  lying  vision, 
and  divination,  and  the  deceit  of  their  own 
heart."  With  no  spiritual  equipment  for  their 
tasks,  and  with  no  supernatural  guidance  or  re- 
straint, the  poor  fellows  were  driven  to  desper- 
ate extremes.  At  best  their  words  were  only 
echoes,  for  they  stole  the  messages  of  their 
rivals,  and  like  other  plagiarists,  they  rarely 
understood  the  meaning  of  the  stolen  words,  or 
applied  them  where  they  fitly  belonged. 

At  worst  these  impostors  were  guilty  of  the 
blackest  falsehood  and  treachery.  To  lie  is 
always  an  awful  sin  ;  but  to  lie  in  the  name 
of  God,  and  to  label  that  lie  a  message  from 
above,  is  doubly  damnable.  This  is  almost,  if 
not  altogether,  an  unpardonable  sin.  Zechariah 
depicts  the  horror  of  godly  parents  who  dis- 
cover that  their  son  is  a  false  prophet :  "  '  Thou 
shalt  not  live,  for  thou  speakest  lies  in  the  name 
*f  Jehovah ' ; — and  his  father  and  his  mother 


158  THE  FALSE  PEOPHETS 

that  begat  him  shall  thrust  him  through  when 
he  prophesieth."  One  is  tempted  to  wish  that 
such  a  fate  had  befallen  each  of  these  fellows 
early  in  his  life ! 

These  imitation  seers  succeeded  all  too  well, 
as  the  world  counts  success.  They  succeeded 
far  better  than  the  true.  Why  ?  Why  should 
the  people  of  God  submit  to  such  gross  impos- 
ture ?  One  of  the  true  prophets  lays  his  finger 
upon  the  secret :  "  The  people  love  to  have  it 
so."  They  had  the  sort  of  men  that  they 
wanted,  and  the  sort  of  teaching  that  they  paid 
for.  But  even  if  they  had  desired  a  different 
sort  of  religious  leaders,  and  a  more  spiritual 
sort  of  teaching,  they  might  have  had  difficulty 
in  detecting  the  false  prophets,  who  were 
never  without  plausible  credentials. 

II     Their  Credentials 

In  judging  one  who  professes  to  come  from 
God,  man  looketh  on  the  outward  appearance. 
There  was  nothing  in  the  outward  appearance 
of  any  true  prophet  which  a  shrewd  impostor 
could  not  easily  have  imitated.  True  prophets 
gave  relatively  small  heed  to  appearances,  but 
imitators  sedulously  cultivated  every  aid  to  de- 
ception. Elijah,  and  perhaps  others  whom  the 
people  had  learned  to  love,  had  worn  rough 


HYPOCRITES  159 

garments,  and  so  their  imitators  in  the  days 
of  Zechariah  wore  hairy  mantles  to  deceive. 
They  appear  to  have  frequently  resorted  to 
ecstasy,  also,  and  among  a  people  easily  led 
astray  by  superstition,  the  prophetic  ecstasy, 
executed  with  consummate  skill,  must  have 
seemed  an  almost  infallible  token  of  super- 
natural power. 

What  better  credentials  than  mere  appear- 
ances could  the  people  have  demanded  ?  They 
could  not  have  asked  for  miracles,  because  as  a 
rule  these  were  rare  among  the  true  prophets. 
If  judged  by  the  miracles  which  they  per- 
formed, many  of  the  true  prophets  would  have 
fallen  as  far  short  as  any  of  the  false.  Much 
the  same  is  true  concerning  the  fulfillment  of 
predictions.  We  can  test  the  true  prophets  in 
this  way,  but  people  in  the  age  when  these 
predictions  were  uttered  could  rarely  know 
whether  they  would  be  fulfilled  in  the  remote 
future  or  not.  When  Hananiah  disputed  Jere- 
miah's prediction  that  the  captivity  would  con- 
tinue for  seventy  years,  and  substituted  the 
more  acceptable  number,  two,  events  quickly 
showed  that  he  was  false.  But  the  majority 
of  these  fellows  must  have  been  shrewd 
enough  not  to  commit  themselves  to  specific 
predictions  which  could  be  tested  before  they 


160 


THE  FALSE  PEOPHETS 


The  Four  Miracle  Periods,  or  Clusters. 


HYPOCEITES  161 

were    dead.     They    were    not    seeking    post 
humous  fame ! 

The  most  certain  attestation  of  the  true 
prophet  was  in  his  personal  consciousness  of  a 
call  from  Jehovah.  Such  a  consciousness  would 
leave  its  spiritual  impress  upon  every  word  ut- 
tered by  the  man  of  God ;  spiritual  things  are 
spiritually  judged,  and  the  people  were  forced 
to  judge  their  professed  seers,  after  all,  most 
largely  by  the  self-evidencing  power  of  the 
truth  which  they  uttered.  When  a  man  of 
God  speaks  the  truth,  the  Spirit  witnesseth 
with  the  people  of  God  that  he  brings  a  mes- 
sage from  on  high.  Such  a  test  depends  for 
its  success  upon  the  spiritual  discernment  of 
the  people,  and  in  the  days  when  the  false 
prophets  flourished,  the  people  were  almost 
blind,  and  their  ears  were  heavy  because  of 
sin.  Hence  they  thought  that  the  true  prophet 
was  speaking  in  an  unknown  tongue,  and  that 
the  false  was  speaking  as  one  of  the  oracles  of 
the  worldling's  God. 

III.     Their  Dependence  on  the  People 

The  success  of  these  men  not  sent  from  God 
must  still  continue  to  surprise  us,  unless  we  re- 
member their  relation  to  the  people.  Here 
again,  they  were  wholly  unlike  the  true  men 


162  THE  FALSE  PEOPHETS 

of  God,  who  were  independent  of  the  people, 
in  the  sense  that  they  persisted  in  declaring  the 
whole  counsel  of  God,  even  though  the  people 
might  implore  them  to  cease  telling  the  truth, 
and  to  prophesy  smooth  things.  They  could 
not  serve  two  masters,  and  they  chose  to  serve 
God.  But  since  the  false  prophets  were  inde- 
pendent of  God,  they  chose  to  cater  to  the 
whims  of  the  people,  on  whom  they  depended 
for  everything. 

These  men  were  good  managers,  and  they 
were  not  averse  to  seeking  great  things  for 
themselves.  They  looked  to  the  people  for  a 
good  livelihood,  and  they  did  not  look  in  vain. 
Elijah,  who  depended  solely  upon  God,  lived 
upon  meager  fare,  but  many  of  these  puny 
worldlings  fared  sumptuously ;  and  save  when 
they  were  poorly  dressed  for  prudential  reasons, 
they  garbed  themselves  in  gorgeous  apparel. 
Micah  said  that  the  prophets  in  his  day  divined 
for  money,  and  that  they  would  prepare  war 
against  those  who  would  not  feed  them.  These 
good  managers,  who  lived  by  bread  alone,  must 
have  pitied  the  poor  prophets  who  lived  by 
every  word  that  proceeded  out  of  the  mouth  of 
God! 

These  men  were  also  good  mixers.  For  their 
living  and  for  their  happiness,  they  were  de- 


HYPOCEITES  16K 

pendent  apon  the  good  will  of  the  people,  and 
in  common  with  other  good  mixers,  they  were 
adept  in  learning  and  in  satisfying  the  wishes 
of  their  many  masters.  Perhaps  these  worldly 
wishes  were  seldom  voiced  in  so  many  words, 
but  there  are  other  ways  of  impressing  upon  a 
good  mixer  the  fact  t^hat  if  he  wishes  to  stand 
in  favour  with  a  worldly  people,  he  must  be 
false  to  his  conscience  and  to  his  God.  Listen 
to  Micah's  version  of  these  facts :  "  If  a  man 
walking  in  a  spirit  of  falsehood  do  lie,  saying, 
1 1  will  prophesy  unto  you  of  wine  and  strong 
drink,'  he  shall  even  be  the  prophet  of  this 
people."  Isaiah  tells  us  that  the  people  say  to 
the  seers,  " '  See  not,'  and  to  the  prophets, 
1  Prophesy  not  unto  us  right  things,  speak  unto 
us  smooth  things,  prophesy  deceits,  get  you  out 
of  the  way,  turn  aside  out  of  the  path,  cause 
the  Holy  One  of  Israel  to  cease  from  be- 
fore us.' " 

This  feeling  of  abject  dependence  upon  the 
will  of  a  worldly  people  was  due,  also,  to  an 
insatiable  craving  for  leadership.  The  true 
prophets  were  despised  and  rejected  of  men, 
partly  because  they  would  not  pay  the  price  of 
leadership.  "  Lord,  who  hath  believed  our  re- 
port ?  "  When  King  Jehoshaphat  asked  King 
Ahab  whether  there  was  not  at  hand  another 


164  THE  FALSE  PEOPHETS 

prophet,  the  King  of  Israel  replied  :  "  There  is 
yet  one  man  by  whom  we  may  inquire  of  Je- 
hovah, Micaiah,  the  son  of  Imlah,  but  I  hate 
him,  for  he  doth  not  prophesy  good  concerning 
me,  but  evil."  If  this  prophet  had  been  seek- 
ing preferment,  he  could  easily  have  adapted 
his  counsel  to  suit  the  ear  of  his  king,  but  he 
chose  rather  to  suffer  affliction  with  the  people 
of  God  than  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a 
season.  "  A  man's  duty  is  his  king's ;  his  con- 
science is  his  own." 

The  false  prophets  were  handicapped  by  no 
such  scruples.  They  aspired  to  become  leaders 
in  the  National  Church,  with  all  the  prestige 
and  the  eclat  which  accompany  exalted  rank ; 
they  chose  with  care  the  means  most  likely  to 
secure  their  end;  and  they  received  their  re- 
ward. In  an  age  when  formal  religion  held  a 
high  place  in  the  public  esteem,  they  became 
the  recognized  representatives  of  religion. 
Jeremiah  speaks  of  them  as  the  Fourth  Estate, 
linking  them  with  the  king,  the  princes  and 
the  priests.  Zephaniah  connects  them  with 
the  king,  the  judges  and  the  priests.  How 
they  must  have  pitied  such  unpopular  prophets 
as  Jeremiah ! 

These  men  not  sent  from  God  were  leaders 
only  in  name.     Trimmers  never  lead.     The 


HYPOCRITES  165 

spiritual  leaders  of  every  age  were  the  true 
prophets,  who  were  so  far  in  advance  of  their 
generation  that  almost  without  exception  they 
were  persecuted.  Their  rewards  were  almost 
wholly  spiritual,  and  these  did  not  appeal  to 
the  worldly  hearts  of  the  false  prophets,  who 
preferred  a  comfortable  living  and  a  flattering 
reputation.  From  the  point  of  view  of  their 
worldly  hearts,  it  paid  them  to  be  in  abject 
dependence  upon  the  will  of  a  worldly  people ; 
it  enabled  them  to  lay  up  treasures  upon  earth. 
Their  rewards  perished  with  them,  and  to-day 
we  think  of  them  only. .with  pity  and  sorrow. 

IV.     Their  Substitute  for  a  Message 

If  we  do  not  yet  understand  how  such 
worldly  men  could  be  regarded  as  the  religious 
leaders  of  their  land,  we  should  study  their 
message.  No;  we  must  not  speak  of  their 
message,  for  they  could  merely  echo  the  words 
which  they  had  read  or  heard,  and  supplement 
these  garbled  half-truths  with  their  own  hopes 
and  dreams.  They  were  not  sent  from  Jeho- 
vah ;  they  did  not  know  Him  ;  how  then  could 
they  speak  for  Him  ?  They  were  in  awe  of 
their  masters,  the  people ;  how  then  could  they 
hope  to  tell  the  people  anything  which  they 
did  not  wish  to  hear?    No!    Their  message, 


X 


166  THE  FALSE  PEOPHETS 

so-called,  was  only  a  policy.  They  were  the 
heralds  of  worldliness,  garbed  in  the  vestments 
of  religion. 

Even  when  speaking  about  holy  things,  these 
men  were  politicians.  In  the  speech  of  the 
true  prophets,  even  when  they  were  dealing 
with  matters  of  the  State,  Jehovah  was  ever 
first;  but  with  the  false,  even  when  the 
occasion  compelled  them  to  speak  concerning 
Jehovah,  the  nation  seems  usually  to  have  been 
paramount.  Nowhere  can  we  note  more  clearly 
the  difference  between  a  message  from  God  and 
a  consistent  policy  made  up  by  worldly  men. 
The  true  prophets  give  us  satisfying  views  of 
God;  the  false,  as  Ezekiel  says  with  scorn, 
muffle  as  with  a  glove  His  mighty  hand.  Even 
if  they  had  known  Him  well,  it  would  not  have 
been  good  policy  to  let  the  people  know  the 
real  God,  for  He  was  holy. 

These  politicians  were  far  from  being  irrelig- 
ious. Perhaps  they  talked  more  about  religion 
than  about  all  things  else,  but  their  religion 
was  a  matter  of  rites  and  forms.  They  lived 
in  an  age  when  ritualism  had  a  large  place  in 
true  religion,  but  only  as  a  means  to  a  spiritual 
end.  These  worldly  men  could  not  see  the 
end,  but  they  could  make  of  the  means  an  end 
in  itself,  and  doubtless  they  imagined  that  they 


HYPOCRITES  167 

knew  much  about  God,  because  they  could 
prate  about  sacrifices,  and  utter  high-sounding 
platitudes  in  His  name.  What  a  pitiful  sub- 
stitute for  the  religion  of  the  genuine  prophets, 
who  pointed  ever  and  anon  to  the  coming 
Messiah ! 

What  could  religious  politicians  know  about 
the  Messiah?  Without  a  deep  consciousness 
of  personal  or  of  national  sin,  without  dark 
forebodings  of  personal  or  of  national  judg- 
ment, how  could  they  understand  the  need  for 
a  Divine  Redeemer?  Without  spiritual  dis- 
cernment, without  an  eye  for  the  beauty  of 
holiness,  how  could  they  comprehend  the  rudi- 
ments of  the  Promise  ?  In  these  high  spiritual 
realms,  without  inspiration,  they  could  not  take 
a  single  step.  They  could  merely  do  their 
worst  to  make  the  people  disbelieve  the  prom- 
ises given  through  the  genuine  prophets. 

The  religious  theory  of  these  politicians  was 
low  and  worldly,  and  their  practical  teachings 
were  no  better.  For  the  individual  and  for  the 
State  they  had  no  such  ethical  message  as  came 
through  Elijah.  With  a  low  sense  of  sin, 
whether  in  themselves  or  in  others,  they  could 
glibly  speak  "smooth  things."  They  could 
know  nothing  save  a  gospel  of  "  sweetness  and 
light."    Jeremiah  says  that  they  healed  the 


168  THE  FALSE  PBOPHETS 

hurt  of  the  daughter  of  the  people  slightly ; 
they  probed  but  gently  into  the  surface  of  the 
festering  sore,  and  then  pronounced  that  all 
was  well.  Ezekiel  says  that  they  drew  a 
nightcap  over  the  eyes  and  the  ears  of  the 
people;  in  modern  phrase,  one  might  call  it 
a  death-cap !  If  that  people  continued  to  live 
on  a  low  plane,  and  if  their  morals  waxed 
worse  and  worse,  the  blame  must  lie  at  the 
door  of  their  so-called  religious  leaders. 

These  men  had  a  definite,  consistent  policy 
for  the  State,  and  of  course  it  was  almost  the 
reverse  of  the  plan  proposed  by  the  true 
prophets.  Isaiah,  for  example,  pleaded  with 
Judah  not  to  strive  to  become  a  world  power, 
not  to  trust  in  horses  and  chariots,  not  to  seek 
foreign  alliances,  but  rather  to  find  her  strength 
in  quiet  resting  upon  Jehovah.  Such  a  high 
and  daring  plan  for  spiritual  defense  did  not 
appeal  to  those  worldly  people,  or  to  their 
worldly  rulers,  and  so  it  did  not  appeal  to 
their  worldly  servants,  the  false  prophets.  As 
Ezekiel  says,  the  people  were  building  a  bad 
wall,  and  the  prophets  were  daubing  it  with 
untempered  mortar. 

In  opposition  to  such  a  spiritual  statesman 
as  Isaiah,  these  religious  politicians  encouraged 
the  rulers  in  their  determination  to  make  Judah 


HYPOCEITES  169 

a  world  power ;  in  their  age-long  tendency  to 
rely  upon  horses  and  chariots ;  and  in  their 
frequent  resort  to  foreign  alliances  as  a  bul- 
wark against  invasion.  From  the  point  of 
view  of  the  world,  this  policy  was  consistent, 
and  in  other  circumstances,  if  carefully  pur- 
sued, it  might  at  length  have  brought  the  na- 
tion out  into  a  place  in  the  sun.  But  it  could 
never  succeed  in  Judah,  which  was  the  cov- 
enant nation  of  Jehovah,  and  if  these  men  had 
not  been  blind,  they  would  have  seen  that 
they  were  walking  with  their  people  towards 
doom.  The  evil  which  they  encouraged  lived 
on  to  blast  the  nation  long  after  they  were 
dead. 

V.     The  Peril  of  False  Prophets  To-day 

The  spectacle  of  these  religious  politicians 
should  cause  us  to  beware  of  worldly  men  in 
the  ministry  to-day.  Instead  of  using  every 
known  means  to  inveigle  callow  youths  into 
this  holy  calling,  we  should  rather  insist  that 
they  tarry  at  home  until  they  are  certain  of  a 
call  to  preach.  When  young  men  enter  our 
theological  seminaries,  instead  of  tacitly  en- 
couraging them  to  think  first  of  the  loaves  and 
fishes,  we  should  at  once  begin  to  hold  before 
them  the  loftiest  spiritual  standards,  lest  the 


170  THE  FALSE  PROPHETS 

modern  Church  be  cursed  with  a  generation 
of  false  prophets. 

The  modern  Church  is  in  danger  of  letting 
the  world  fix  the  standards  for  the  gospel  min- 
istry, The  world  demands,  first  of  all,  that 
the  prophet  be  a  good  mixer,  and  as  a  rule 
the  false  prophet  could  meet  this  demand 
better  than  the  true.  The  world  asks,  also, 
for  a  good  manager  at  the  head  of  each  con- 
gregation, and  here  again  the  false  prophet 
would  be  more  likely  to  please.  The  worM 
insists,  too,  that  the  prophet  be  a  good  talker, 
and  that  he  show  an  active  interest  in  many 
things  apart  from  his  peculiar  calling;  here 
also  is  no  barrier  against  a  man  not  sent  of 
God.  But  the  world  does  not  call  for  a  man 
of  the  loftiest  Christian  character,  and  with 
the  strongest  spiritual  message.  Too  oftenA 
alas,  the  world  finds  in  the  Church  the  sort 
of  minister  that  it  prefers,  the  .false  prophet. 

The  strongest  temptation  which  comes  to 
many  a  young  minister  is  to  strive  to  succeed 
by  using  the  arts  of  the  religious  politician. 
Since  our  people  wish  us  to  be  good  mixers, 
good  managers,  good  talkers,  only  this  and 
nothing  more,  why  should  we  not  gratify 
their  desires  ?  Since  they  wish  to  hear  only 
smooth  things,  why  should  we  harrow   their 


HYPOCEITES  171 

souls  with  unwelcome  messages  from  God  ? 
When  we  hear  from  the  admirers  of  a  most 
successful  young  pastor  that  he  succeeds  be- 
cause he  is  smooth,  we  ask  ourselves  why  we 
too  should  not  prepare  to  succeed  by  cultivat- 
ing the  arts  of  the  politician.  To  all  of  these 
queries  there  is  only  one  safe  reply :  "  Get 
thee  behind  me,  Satan !  "  To-day  as  of  old  the 
true  prophet  depends  absolutely  upon  God,  and 
the  man  who  does  not  depend  upon  God,  no 
matter  how  gifted  and  how  successful,  is  a  false 
prophet. 


172 


JEREMIAH 


O.T. 


Times 


.weakness; 

Cumulative  Causes  of  Jeeemiah's 
Unpopularity. 


(Suggestion  :  Prepare  a  similar  chart  showing  the 
cumulative  reasons  for  honouring  Jeremiah.) 


vni 

JEREMIAH :  THE  PATRIOT  AND  SAINT 

JEREMIAH  has  rarely  been  understood  or 
appreciated.  In  his  own  times  he  was 
not  in  favour  with  the  so-called  good  men 
and  great ;  he  was  opposed  by  all  classes  of  the 
nation,  from  the  kings  and  the  nobles,  the 
priests  and  the  prophets,  to  the  common 
people,  whom  he  loved  most  of  all.  To  this 
day  he  is  unpopular.  We  do  not  hurl  stones 
at  him  now,  but  we  neglect  him,  or  we  pity 
him,  as  though  he  were  such  a  caricature  of  a 
seer  as  Sargent  has  painted.  In  an  age  when 
shallow  optimism  is  all  the  vogue,  we  style 
Jeremiah  a  pessimist.  In  a  land  where  tears 
are  supposed  to  be  unmanly,  we  call  him  a 
man  of  tears.  We  seldom  read  the  book 
written  by  this  so-called  weeping  prophet. 
Alike  in  the  home,  in  the  Sabbath  school,  and 
even  in  the  pulpit,  we  rarely  mention  his 
name.  In  short,  we  live  as  though  there  had 
never  been  such  a  patriot  and  saint  as  Jere- 
miah. 

In  every  age  a  few  wise  men  have  honoured 
173 


174  JEEEMIAH 

this  prophet  as  one  of  earth's  noblest  heroes. 
Renan,  the  French  sceptic,  who  belittled  other 
worthy  men  of  the  Bible,  said  of  Jeremiah: 
"  Before  John  the  Baptist,  he  was  the  one  man 
who  contributed  most  to  the  foundation  of 
Christianity.  In  spite  of  the  distance  of  his 
time,  he  ought  to  be  counted  among  the  im- 
mediate precursors  of  Jesus."  Many  a  more 
reverent  scholar  shares  this  lofty  estimate.  If 
it  be  correct,  those  of  us  who  scarcely  revere 
this  man  of  God  should  ask  ourselves  why.  We 
excuse  ourselves  for  not  knowing  Nahum  and 
Zephaniah  because  their  extant  writings  are 
brief,  but  why  should  we  be  almost  equally  ig- 
norant of  a  man  whose  one  book  is  the  longest 
in  the  Bible,  save  the  Psalms  ?  "Why  should 
we  pity  a  man  whose  book  comprises  one-twen- 
tieth of  the  entire  Scriptures  ? 

Underlying  our  neglect  of  Jeremiah  is  the 
fact  that  his  writings  are  found  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. Many  of  us  are  slow  to  confess  that 
these  ancient  oracles  are  to  us  only  a  name,  but 
in  our  hearts  we  know  that  we  have  small  un- 
derstanding of  these  thirty-nine  books  about 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  said  through  the  apostle : 
"  All  scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God, 
and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for 
correction,    for  instruction  in  righteousness." 


THE  PATEIOT  AND  SAINT  175 

But  still  we  must  ask  why  we  neglect  this  book 
more  than  the  other  long  books  of  the  Old 
Testament.  Did  the  Holy  Spirit  make  a  mis- 
take in  allotting  so  much  space  to  Jeremiah  ? 

I.     His  Lack  of  a  Literary  Style  ? 

We  moderns  demand  that  the  books  which 
we  honour  with  our  attention  shall  be  clear, 
interesting,  and  at  times  even  exciting.  We 
prefer  that  our  religious  teaching  come  to  us 
modestly  garbed  in  the  form  of  fiction,  and  that 
our  religious  teachers  do  our  thinking  for  us  in 
advance.  We  who  are  young  prefer  short, 
snappy  magazine  articles,  rather  than  long,  com- 
plicated treatises,  such  as  our  fathers  loved  to 
master ;  and  instead  of  approaching  this  book 
with  all  the  greater  expectation  because  it  cov- 
ers many,  many  pages  in  our  Divine  Library, 
we  view  it  rather  with  dismay,  and  pass  by  on 
the  other  side.  If  such  a  picture  seems  too 
dark  (would  that  it  were  not  true !),  ask  the 
young  people  of  your  own  Christian  Endeavour 
Society  how  many  of  them  have  read  the  long- 
est Bible  book  composed  by  a  single  author, 
and  with  what  results  ! 

Those  of  us  who  still  read  our  Bible  book 
after  book,  in  the  good  old-fashioned  way,  come 
to  the  Book  of  Jeremiah  after  we  have  been 


176  JEEEMIAH 

exulting  in  the  oratory  of  Isaiah.  We  think 
of  the  earlier  seer  as  the  world's  supreme  ora- 
tor :  with  him  we  can  mount  up  on  wings  as 
eagles ;  we  can  run  and  not  be  weary ;  we  can 
walk  and  not  faint.  Then  we  plod  through  the 
pages  of  Jeremiah,  much  as  a  work  of  penance ; 
and  at  last,  with  a  sigh  of  relief,  we  turn  to  the 
Book  of  Ezekiel,  where  we  begin  again  to  soar 
and  to  see  visions,  not  so  lofty  as  those  in  Isaiah, 
but  filled  with  vastness  and  beauty.  As  we 
turn  from  this  portion  of  the  Bible,  we  remem- 
ber the  Book  of  Jeremiah  as  a  long,  monoto- 
nous stretch  of  prairie  land  between  the  peaks 
of  two  entrancing  mountain  ranges.  "We  think 
that  we  deserve  great  credit  for  taking  that 
route  once,  and  we  trust  that  we  shall  not  soon 
pass  that  way  again.  If  this  picture  seems  too 
dark  (would  that  it  were !),  ask  your  friends  of 
middle  age  to  name  their  favourite  books  writ- 
ten by  the  prophets ! 

Many  of  us  are  tempted  to  conclude  that 
Jeremiah  is  called  a  major  prophet,  not  because 
he  deserves  to  rank  with  Isaiah,  or  even  with 
Ezekiel,  but  because  he  wrote  much,  rather  than 
well.  If  we  analyze  this  feeling,  we  find  that 
it  is  due  somewhat  largely  to  Jeremiah's  sup- 
posed lack  of  literary  style.  He  had  not  the 
eloquence  of  Isaiah,  or  the  ecstatic  fervour  of 


THE  PATRIOT  AND  SAINT  177 

Ezekiel.  He  left  for  later  orators  no  models 
for  moulding  their  periods,  but  he  showed  them 
how  to  adapt  their  style  to  suit  their  theme. 
He  was  the  prophet  of  failure,  of  national  sub- 
jection ;  he  was  called  "  to  root  out,  to  pull 
down,  to  destroy."  He  dipped  his  brush  most 
largely  in  the  darker  hues,  because  it  was  not 
his  lot  to  turn  the  hearts  of  his  people  towards 
righteousness,  or  to  paint  the  glories  in  the 
distance.  His  style  was  scarcely  more  charm- 
ing than  the  melody  of  Beethoven's  Funeral 
March,  because  his  sad  mission  demanded  a 
somber  message. 

Jeremiah  was  led  by  the  Spirit  to  seek  force 
rather  than  elegance,  and  clearness  rather  than 
beauty.  Call  his  writings  dull,  if  you  will ; 
speak  of  the  leaden  wings  of  his  fancy,  if  you 
must ;  but  if  you  look  beneath  the  surface,  you 
will  discover  that  his  style  has  a  quiet  beauty 
all  its  own.  The  best  writing  calls  no  atten- 
tion to  itself ;  but  if  you  are  looking  for  pathos, 
where  can  you  find  it  so  well  expressed  as  here  ? 
Save  in  the  words  of  the  Master  Himself,  where 
can  you  find  more  happy  use  of  homely  figures, 
such  as  the  potter,  the  girdle  and  the  yoke,  the 
two  baskets  of  figs  and  the  broken  bottle  ? 
Even  for  its  style,  this  book  is  worthy  of  study 
and  of  imitation.     If  we  continue  to  find  it  un- 


178  JEREMIAH 

attractive,  let  us  beware  lest  false  standards 
lead  us  astray,  and  close  our  eyes  to  one  of 
God's  greatest  books. 

II.     The  Man  and  His  Times 

Deeper  still  as  a  reason  for  our  neglect  of 
Jeremiah  is  the  fact  that  we  do  not  understand 
him  and  his  book.  "When  any  one  heareth 
the  word  of  the  kingdom,  and  understandeth 
it  not,  then  cometh  the  wicked  one  and  snatch- 
eth  away  that  which  was  sown  in  his  heart." 
If  we  understood  this  book,  somewhat  as  the 
original  readers  understood  it,  we  should  not 
find  it  dull  or  profitless.  Without  some  knowl- 
edge of  his  times  and  of  his  life,  we  cannot 
hope  to  understand  his  book,  or  to  find  it  help- 
ful. Nowhere  in  our  study  of  the  Bible  can 
we  employ  the  historical  method  to  better  ad- 
vantage than  in  the  Book  of  Jeremiah. 

We  can  learn  more  about  this  man  than 
about  any  other  prophet  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Unlike  Isaiah,  but  like  the  Apostle  Paul,  Jere- 
miah was  ever  disclosing  facts  about  his  own 
personality  and  about  his  most  intimate  experi- 
ences. He  tells  us  that  he  was  born  in  the 
latter  portion  of  the  seventh  century  before 
Christ,  in  the  village  of  Anathoth,  and  in  the 
home  of  a  priest,  who  was  probably  a  man  of 


THE  PATRIOT  AND  SAINT         179 

distinction.  His  name  means,  "Jehovah  doth 
establish."  He  tells  us  that  even  before  his 
birth,  he  had  been  set  apart  by  Jehovah  for 
the  prophetic  office,  and  that  he  had  scarcely 
arrived  at  maturity  before  the  word  of  Jehovah 
summoned  him  to  take  up  his  life-work.  He 
seems  to  have  been  called  in  the  thirtieth  year 
of  King  Josiah,  that  is,  about  618  b.  c,  and 
to  have  prophesied  in  Judah  continuously  for 
almost  forty  years. 

Never  was  nation  in  more  need  of  a  prophet. 
Idolatry  and  vice,  like  twin  leeches,  had  been 
sapping  the  life-blood  of  Judah  so  long  that 
she  would  soon  be  unable  to  stand  alone,  and 
she  felt  compelled  to  turn  for  support  to  Egypt 
or  to  Babylon,  the  two  powers  which  were  then 
striving  for  the  mastery  of  the  world.  To  the 
degenerate  Hebrews,  Egypt,  with  her  luxury 
and  sloth,  was  more  attractive  than  Babylon, 
with  her  energy  and  coldness.  But  God  did 
not  will  that  His  chosen  people  should  look  to 
the  land  of  the  Nile  for  deliverance :  He  had 
raised  up  Isaiah  to  sound  repeated  warnings 
against  that  land  which  had  often  cast  over 
the  hearts  of  the  Children  of  Israel  some  such 
spell  as  Cleopatra  was  later  to  cast  over  poor 
Antony ;  and  through  Jeremiah  God  sounded 
forth  this  message  in  its  final  form. 


180  JEEEMIAH 

For  twoscore  years,  as  a  "  mighty  statesman 
in  the  kingdom  of  God,"  Jeremiah  strove  to 
induce  the  rulers  to  abandon  their  schemes  for 
alliance  with  Egypt,  the  waning  power  in  the 
South,  and  to  seek  peace  with  Babylon,  the 
taxing  power  in  the  North.  For  twoscore 
jears,  like  the  Evangelist  in  "  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress," he  strove  to  persuade  his  people  to  for- 
sake their  sins,  and  to  turn  again  to  Jehovah. 
For  forty  years,  as  the  prophet  of  the  Most 
High  God,  he  strove  to  lead  the  priests  and 
the  prophets  to  cease  their  smiling  upon  idol- 
atry and  vice,  and  to  reinstate  in  the  land  the 
worship  and  the  righteousness  of  Jehovah.  For 
forty  years,  as  patriot  and  saint,  with  undying 
courage  and  devotion,  he  combatted  the  sins 
and  the  wiles  of  kings  and  nobles,  of  priests 
and  prophets,  and  of  the  common  people.  Is 
it  any  wonder  that  he  was  hated  and  feared  ? 

Jeremiah  failed.  He  had  been  called  to  fail. 
So  long  as  Josiah  sat  upon  the  throne,  the 
prophet  had  royal  support  in  his  work  of  re- 
form, and  they  two  zealously  strove  to  carry 
out  the  teachings  of  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy, 
which  had  been  discovered  anew  shortly  before 
the  prophet  began  his  work.  This  reformation, 
however,  was  but  superficial,  and  therefore 
short-lived.     After  608  b.  c,  when  Josiah  was 


THE  PATRIOT  AND  SAINT         181 

defeated  in  battle  by  Pharaoh-Necho,  and  was 
slain,  matters  in  Judah  grew  worse  and  worse. 
During  the  remainder  of  his  life,  Jeremiah  was 
to  catch  only  a  passing  glimpse  of  success. 
Practically  alone,  with  scarcely  a  friend  or  a 
sympathizer,  he  was  left  almost  single-handed 
to  contend  with  his  nation,  blindly  rushing  to 
her  ruin. 

At  last  doom  fell.  After  defeating  Nineveh, 
Babylon  conquered  Egypt  and  Judah,  besieged 
Jerusalem,  burned  the  Temple,  and  in  582  b.  c, 
carried  many  of  the  people  away  captive  to 
Babylon.  Jeremiah,  saddened  by  these  calami- 
ties which  he  had  long  struggled  in  vain  to 
avert,  must  have  yearned  to  end  his  days  amid 
the  ruins  of  his  beloved  city ;  doubtless  he  would 
have  preferred  to  go  to  Babylon  rather  than  to 
Egypt ;  but  if  we  may  follow  an  exceedingly 
doubtful  tradition,  he  was  carried  away  by 
wicked  men  who  were  fleeing  to  the  land  of 
the  Nile,  and  there  he  was  stoned.  Whether 
this  be  true  or  not,  he  must  have  died  as  he  had 
lived,  solitary, — without  wife  or  children  or 
friends ;  but  majestic, — a  martyr  for  the  truth 
of  God. 

Is  this  all  that  scholars  and  saints  have  learned 
about  Jeremiah  ?  By  no  means  !  If  we  study 
the  Scriptures  in  the  light  of  modern  learning, 


182  JEREMIAH 

we  should  know  more  about  this  man  than 
about  any  of  those  other  seers.  When  we  view 
him  against  the  background  of  his  own  age,  we 
conclude  that  he  was  one  of  the  most  winsome 
and  most  powerful  men  of  the  Bible.  We  be- 
hold him  towering  above  the  low  level  of  his 
times,  as  one  of  those  pyramids  beneath  whose 
shadow  he  may  have  died,  towers  above  the 
sands  of  the  Nile.  Surely  it  is  worth  our  while, 
at  any  cost  of  time  and  of  toil,  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  Jeremiah,  for  to  know  him  well 
is  to  honour  and  to  love  him  as  a  patriot  and 
saint. 

III.     His  Reputation  for  Pessimism 

A  deeper  reason  for  this  seer's  unpopularity 
lies  in  his  reputation  for  pessimism.  The  men 
of  his  own  time  had  no  scruples  against  reading 
the  books  which  comprise  our  Old  Testament ; 
they  knew  the  historic  background  as  we  can- 
not hope  to  know  it ;  but  they  had  small 
patience  with  Jeremiah,  partly  because  they 
considered  him  a  chronic  grumbler.  Their 
heroes,  as  a  rule,  were  little  inclined  to  look 
long  upon  the  darker  side  of  life :  Elijah  and 
David  were  at  times  in  the  dumps,  as  John 
McNeil  would  phrase  it,  but  only  for  a  while ; 
even  Job  was  far  from  being  a  pessimist.     Other 


THE  PATRIOT  AND  SAINT         183 

prophets  were  as  unsparing  as  Jeremiah  in  their 
denunciation  of  evil,  but  somehow  they  left  their 
thoughtful  hearers  at  last  with  an  outlook  of 
hope ;  but  in  the  eyes  of  the  majority  of  the 
Jews,  Jeremiah  stood  forth  as  a  "  pessimistic 
old  man." 

The  modern  world,  also,  thinks  of  this  prophet 
as  a  pessimist.  Partly  because  of  the  mournful 
tones  of  the  Book  of  Lamentations,  which  does 
not  concern  us  here,  we  use  the  term,  jeremiad, 
to  denote  a  "  tale  of  sorrow,  disappointment  or 
complaint ;  a  doleful  story ;  a  dolorous  tirade." 
We  view  without  protest  Sargent's  paintings, 
where  Isaiah  appears  in  all  the  majesty  of 
young  manhood,  and  Ezekiel  gazes  afar  with  a 
vision  rapt  and  holy,  but  Jeremiah  stands  look- 
ing down, — aged,  disconsolate,  hopeless.  We 
feel  small  desire  to  become  acquainted  with 
such  a  gloomy  old  pessimist.  We  forget  the 
facts.  Even  if  it  were  a  crime  to  be  aged, 
Jeremiah  seems  to  have  begun  his  work  earlier 
than  either  of  the  others,  and  always  to  have 
retained  the  spirit  of  youth.  He  is  called  a 
pessimist  because  of  the  persistence  and  the 
energy  with  which  he  denounced  sin  and  fore- 
told doom.  He  hurled  anathemas  against  his 
nation  for  her  unjust  laws  in  favour  of  the 
covetous;   he  likened  her  to  a  basket  of  figs 


184  JEREMIAH 

over-ripe ;  and  he  warned  his  people  against 
impurity,  which  was  swiftly  undermining  the 
home.  But  he  found  no  delight  in  his  message 
of  gloom. 

Most  severe  of  all  Jeremiah's  strictures  were 
those  against  his  Church.  That  Church,  like 
our  own,  was  proud ;  she  resented  criticism  or 
advice,  especially  from  one  whom  she  considered 
a  pessimist.  But  Jeremiah  persisted  in  declar- 
ing that  the  Church  had  largely  forgotten  Je- 
hovah ;  that  she  had  gone  after  Baal  and  Mo- 
loch ;  in  brief,  that  she  was  a  harlot.  Such  a 
message  was  by  no  means  new,  but  not  even 
Hosea  had  delivered  it  with  greater  clearness 
and  force.  Needless  to  say,  no  harlot  relishes 
her  title.  The  Church  hated  Jeremiah.  She 
said,  as  many  of  us  would  say,  that  such  bald 
denunciations  of  evil  were  altogether  too  crude 
for  cultured  ears,  accustomed  to  smooth  say- 
ings. 

Jeremiah  did  not  cease,  as  many  a  would-be 
reformer  ceases,  with  simple  rebuke  of  sin.  He 
proceeded  to  show  the  judgment  which  follows 
fast  in  the  wake  of  evil.  Again  and  again  he 
reminded  his  people  that  they  must  not  trust 
in  soldiers,  and  that  they  need  not  look  to 
Egypt  for  succour,  because  Jehovah  was  about 
to  visit  upon  them  the  just  penalty  for  their 


THE  PATRIOT  AND  SAINT         185 

sins.  The  prophet  told  them  clearly  that 
Judah  would  be  visited  by  an  avenging  sword ; 
that  the  Holy  City,  which  they  thought  in- 
violable, would  be  set  on  fire ;  and  that  the 
people,  who  thought  themselves  the  favourites 
of  fortune,  would  be  carried  away  captive  to 
Babylon. 

At  the  heart  of  all  this  sad  teaching  of  Jere- 
miah lay  an  eternal  principle  :  God  ruled.  God 
ruled,  not  only  over  Judah,  but  over  Egypt  and 
Assyria,  and  over  the  entire  world.  In  many 
ways  the  seer  proclaimed  this  truth,  but  in  no 
way  more  strikingly  than  in  his  figure  of  the 
potter.  As  the  potter  moulded  his  plastic  clay 
into  any  form  that  he  might  desire,  so  God 
was  moulding  the  nation.  Such  teaching  was 
scarcely  more  popular  in  ancient  Judah  than  in 
modern  America.  We  think  that  God  is  too 
merciful  to  punish  His  erring  children,  and 
that  He  loves  our  land  too  much  to  visit  on  her 
the  penalty  for  her  sins.  Hence  we  do  not 
relish  the  dire  teachings  of  Jeremiah  ;  we  pre- 
fer soothing  syrup,  a  gospel  of  "  sweetness  and 
light."  "  The  world  is  too  much  with  us." 
We  listen  eagerly  to  those  who  whisper, — 
"  Peace,  peace  !  " — when  we  should  learn  from 
Jeremiah  that  there  is  no  real  peace  apart  from 
God.     God  still  rules. 


186  JEEEMIAH 

"  All  that  is,  at  all, 
Lasts  ever,  past  recall ; 
Earth  changes,  but  thy  soul  aud  God  stand 
sure; 
What  euter'd  into  thee, 
That  was,  is,  and  shall  be  ; 
Time's  wheel  runs  back  or  stops  :  Potter  and 
clay  endure." 

Browning,  justly  famed  as  an  optimist,  may 
have  learned  from  Jeremiah  the  truth  which 
makes  "  Kabbi  Ben  Ezra  "  one  of  our  mightiest 
songs  of  hope.  The  prophet  was  no  mere 
pessimist.  He  preached  the  gospel  of  things 
as  they  are,  and  as  they  should  be.  He  de- 
nounced sin,  but  only  that  it  might  be  for- 
saken, and  he  foretold  doom,  that  it  might 
be  averted.  Never  for  an  instant  did  he 
close  his  eyes  to  the  beauty  and  the  joy  of 
living.  Here  and  there  he  painted  a  bliss- 
ful picture  of  the  coming  Messianic  reign,  a 
picture  which  showed  all  the  brighter  against 
the  dark  background  of  his  woes,  a  picture 
almost  the  brightest  to  be  found  among  the 
prophets.  "  Behold  the  days  come,  saith  the 
Lord,  that  I  will  make  a  new  covenant  with 
the  house  of  Israel,  and  with  the  house  of 
Judah." 

During  the  Exile,  after  the  doom  foretold  by 


THE  PATEIOT  AND  SAINT  187 

Jeremiah  had  fallen  upon  God's  chosen  people, 
and  they  had  been  carried  away  captive  to 
Babylon,  they  began  to  view  the  prophet  with 
other  eyes.  The  fact  that  his  unwelcome  pre- 
dictions had  come  true  gave  them  assurance 
that  his  brightest  promises  would  not  fail.  He 
had  told  them  that  deliverance  from  captivity 
would  come  at  the  end  of  seventy  years,  and 
at  the  end  of  those  seventy  years  deliverance 
came.  But,  alas,  Jeremiah  had  fallen  asleep 
long  before  his  people  awoke  to  the  fact  that 
he  was  their  best  friend,  the  herald  of  their 
dawn. 

For  us,  too,  this  book  has  tidings  of  hope  and 
cheer.  The  entire  Old  Testament  brings  us  no 
loftier  message  than  Jeremiah's  words  about 
the  New  Covenant.  These  glorious  promises 
were  partially  fulfilled  in  the  return  from  the 
Exile ;  they  found  a  more  complete  fulfillment 
in  the  coming  of  the  Saviour ;  through  Him 
they  are  being  more  and  more  perfectly  fulfilled 
before  our  eyes  ;  but  the  end  is  not  yet.  Why 
then  should  we  negleot  a  book  which  has  for 
us  many  gleams  of  heavenly  light  ?  Jeremiah 
was  no  pessimist ;  he  was  an  artist,  who  painted 
his  background  on  the  largest  canvas  and  in 
the  darkest  hues,  but  on  this  field  he  threw  a 
flood  of  light  and  glory. 


188  JEEEMIAH 

"  Praise  be  Thine  ! 
I  see  the  whole  design, 
I,  who  saw  power  before,  see  love  perfect  too ; 
Perfect  I  call  Thy  plan  ; 
Thanks  that  I  was  a  man  ! 
Maker,    remake,    complete, — I    trust   what 
Thou  shalt  do." 

IV.     His  Reputation  for  Tears 

"We  neglect  this  man  of  God,  in  the  next 
place,  because  we  consider  him  a  weakling. 
Michael  Angelo  painted  a  picture  of  Jeremiah 
as  an  "  awe-struck  figure,"  "  in  an  attitude  of 
hopeless  despair."  This  is  what  many  of  us 
mean  when  we  style  him  the  weeping  prophet. 
In  an  age  when  the  adjective,  strenuous,  ex- 
presses our  ideals  of  manhood,  we  dislike  a 
weakling,  a  man  of  tears ;  and  we  think  to  our- 
selves that  the  men  of  Judah  might  have  lis- 
tened to  Jeremiah  if  he  had  been  more  of  a 
man.  Before  we  condemn  him,  however,  let 
us  ask  why  he  wept.  "Was  it  because  of  his 
sins  ?  No  !  Of  all  of  the  men  of  the  Bible,  per- 
haps only  the  One  stands  out  in  more  spotless 
white.  When  Jeremiah  was  called,  he  made 
no  such  confession  of  sin  as  that  of  Isaiah. 
Some  one  has  said  that  in  its  pristine  purity 
the  soul  of  this  gentle  seer  was  like  a  sheltered 
lake. 


THE  PATRIOT  AND  SAINT         189 

"Why  then  did  he  weep?  Was  it  because 
men  persecuted  him  unjustly  ?  No  !  Like  his 
Lord,  he  was  too  busy  serving  others  to  spend 
much  time  and  thought  upon  his  own  troubles. 
He  wept  over  Jerusalem,  even  as  Jesus  was  to 
weep  over  that  same  center  of  ecclesiastical  sin. 
There  come  times  when  the  man  who  smiles 
upon  his  country's  sin  is  a  traitor,  and  when 
the  man  who  weeps  is  her  best  friend.  As  six 
hundred  years  later  Jesus  was  to  stand  almost 
alone  in  that  great,  wicked  city,  so  Jeremiah 
stood  almost  alone.  On  every  side  were  hosts 
of  men  who  did  not  sympathize  with  his  tears, 
because  they  did  not  feel  the  awful  weight  of 
their  sins,  and  the  fearfulness  of  their  fast  com- 
ing doom.  They  pointed  at  him  the  finger  of 
scorn,  because  they  did  not  know  that  his  heart 
was  breaking,  not  because  of  his  own  suffer- 
ings, but  because  of  their  sins. 

We  think  of  a  man  of  tears  as  a  coward,  but 
ill  coward  never  yet  has  dared  to  become  a  re- 
former. For  twoscore  years,  in  spite  of  as- 
sured failure,  Jeremiah  persisted  in  his  work  of 
reform,  and  while  at  times  he  may  have  grown 
weary  in  well-doing,  he  never  ceased  in  his 
struggle  for  truth  and  righteousness.  Never 
did  he  flinch  under  the  persecutions  which  men 
heaped  upon  him.     When  priests  and  prophets 


190  JEREMIAH 

and  common  people  conspired  to  take  his  life, 
this  sensitive  soul,  who  had  a  world  of  tears  for 
his  dying  nation,  had  not  one  tear  for  himself. 
On  the  way  to  expected  martyrdom,  he  warned 
his  persecutors  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come : 
"Amend  your  ways,  and  obey  the  voice  of  the 
Lord  your  God.  ...  As  for  me,  behold,  I 
am  in  your  hands  ...  do  with  me  as 
seemeth  good  unto  you."  Is  this  the  voice  of 
an  effeminate  weakling  ? 

In  nothing  was  Jeremiah  more  like  Jesus 
than  in  his  tears.  As  Jesus  was  to  weep  at  the 
grave  of  Lazarus,  so  Jeremiah  wept  over  the 
body  of  his  friend,  Josiah  the  King ;  and  the 
men  who  beheld  the  prophet  in  tears  must 
have  exclaimed,  as  their  children  were  to  ex- 
claim at  the  sight  of  Jesus  weeping  at  the  tomb 
of  Lazarus,  "  Behold  how  He  loved  him  !  "  Do 
we  think  of  Jesus  as  a  weakling,  because  He 
shed  tears  when  His  heart  was  deeply  moved  ? 
No  !  "Why  then  should  we  pity  this  other  man, 
whose  heart  when  filled  with  grief  overflowed 
in  tears  ?  If  a  strong  man  weeps  when  he 
buries  an  earthly  friend,  how  much  more  will 
a  strong  man  weep  when  he  pronounces  doom 
upon  his  beloved  fatherland,  Jeremiah  stood 
beside  the  grave  which  for  ages  his  nation  had 
been  digging  for  herself ;  and  he  saw  ever  at 


THE  PATEIOT  AND  SAINT  191 

the  door  the  feet  of  those  who  were  waiting  to 
carry  to  that  grave  the  nation  which  he  loved 
more  than  all  else,  save  his  God.  If  he  had 
not  wept,  he  would  not  have  been  human,  to 
say  nothing  of  his  being  holy. 

V.     A  Type  of  Christ 

We  neglect  this  man,  in  the  last  place,  be- 
cause we  forget  that  he  was  a  type  of  Christ. 
A  modern  scholar  draws  a  parallel  between 
Jeremiah  and  Savonarola.  Shortly  before  the 
latter  was  burned  at  the  stake  iu  the  convent 
church  of  St.  Mark's,  in  Florence,  he  said  to  the 
people :  "  If  you  ask  me  in  general  as  to  the 
issue  of  this  struggle,  I  answer,  '  Victory ! '  If 
you  ask  me  in  a  particular  sense,  I  answer, 
'  Death ! '  The  Master,  when  He  has  used  a 
hammer,  throws  it  away  ;  so  He  did  with  Jere- 
miah, whom  He  caused  to  be  stoned  at  the  end 
of  his  ministry.  But  Kome  will  not  put  out 
this  fire,  and  if  it  be  put  out,  God  will  light 
another ;  and  indeed  it  is  already  lighted  every- 
where, only  they  perceive  it  not." 

There  was  much  in  common  between  the  old- 
time  saint  and  the  modern  patriot,  but  there 
was  more  by  far  in  common  between  Jeremiah 
and  Jesus  Christ.  If  we  fail  to  see  this  like- 
ness, it  must  be  because  we  do  not  understand 


192  JEREMIAH 

the  saintly  seer  who  "  knew  the  fellowship  of 
His  sufferings,"  or  because  we  forget  that  while 
on  earth  the  Lord  of  Glory  was  "  a  man  of  sor- 
rows and  acquainted  with  grief."  Yes,  Jere- 
miah was  like  Jesus  Christ.  Conservative 
scholars  call  him  a  type,  and  liberal  scholars 
sometimes  speak  of  him  as  an  adumbration, 
whatever  that  may  mean,  but  all  agree  that  he 
is  like  Christ.  Surely  this  in  itself  is  more  than 
a  sufficient  reason  why  we  should  yearn  after  a 
closer  walk  with  Jeremiah. 

This  man  of  God  was  like  the  Master  in  his 
teachings.  Each  appeared  at  a  crisis  in  the 
history  of  Judah,  which  was  never  again  to  be 
the  same;  each  was  called  a  destructive  teacher; 
each  was  hated  because  he  foretold  the  passing 
of  the  temple,  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  and  the 
ruin  of  Judah ;  and,  needless  to  say,  the  pre- 
dictions of  each  were  fulfilled.  But,  as  we  too 
often  forget,  Jeremiah  and  Jesus  were  alike  in 
their  positive  teachings,  for  which  their  so- 
called  destructive  teachings  merely  paved  the 
way.  For  example,  whenever  we  read  that 
phrase,  "  New  Testament,"  which  ought  rather 
to  be  translated,  "New  Covenant,"  we  should 
remember  that  in  the  Old  Testament  it  was 
first  employed  by  Jeremiah.  He  foretold  the 
institution  of  the  New  Covenant,  and  Jesus 


THE  PATEIOT  AND  SAINT  193 

Christ  brought  to  the  world  the  blessings  of 
that  New  Covenant. 

In  Jeremiah,  as  in  our  Master,  the  man  was 
even  more  important  than  the  message.  The 
man  Jeremiah  was  like  the  man  Jesus  Christ. 
Sometimes  we  wonder  why  this  prophet  rarely 
referred  to  the  coming  Messiah.  Perhaps  it 
was  because  Jeremiah  was  raised  up  to  lead  a 
prophetic  life :  he  himself  was  a  living  predic- 
tion of  the  Messiah.  In  Isaiah's  portrait  of 
the  "  Suffering  Servant  of  Jehovah,"  written 
prophecy  had  already  gone  as  high  as  it  could 
go,  and  it  remained  for  Jeremiah  to  embody 
that  ideal  in  a  prophetic  life.  Some  of  the 
liberal  scholars,  in  casting  about  for  a  later  seer 
great  and  good  enough  to  have  been  the  author 
of  the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  ascribe  it 
to  Jeremiah,  because  in  a  purely  human  sense 
his  life  illustrated  many  of  those  gracious 
words. 

Like  our  Saviour,  Jeremiah  was  sanctified 
for  his  life-work  from  his  mother's  womb ;  each 
was  celibate,  though  each  loved  the  joys  of 
home ;  and  each  was  unpopular.  In  an  age 
when  we  almost  worship  popularity,  we  can 
scarcely  comprehend  why  a  discerning  man 
should  set  his  face  like  a  flint,  and  deliberately 
choose  a  path  filled  with  misunderstanding  and 


194  JEREMIAH 

abuse.  More  than  once  Jeremiah  was  mobbed 
and  almost  massacred.  His  experience  in  his 
home  village  was  like  that  of  Jesus  in  Naza- 
reth. "The  prophet  is  not  without  honour, 
save  in  his  own  country."  Each  was  rejected 
at  Jerusalem ;  each  was  persecuted  by  the  con- 
sent of  his  State ;  each  bore  the  hatred  of  his 
Church ;  and  each  suffered  death  at  the  hands 
of  those  whom  he  had  lived  to  bless. 

This  prophet  was  most  like  the  Saviour,  per- 
haps, in  his  sympathy.  Isaiah,  to  the  depths 
of  his  great  heart,  sympathized  with  his  nation; 
Ezekiel,  more  than  almost  any  other  Old  Testa- 
ment prophet,  sympathized  with  the  individual 
soul  struggling  towards  the  light;  Jeremiah, 
though  he  showed  a  deep  and  warm  feeling 
for  his  nation  and  for  his  fellows,  had  a  far 
deeper  feeling  for  the  sorrows  of  God.  Those 
who  know  him  most  intimately  tell  us  that  in 
Old  Testament  times  no  man  knew  more 
deeply  the  sympathy  of  our  Lord.  Jeremiah 
wept,  somewhat  as  Jesus  wept,  because  men 
were  grieving  the  heart  of  his  Heavenly 
Father. 

This   prophet  was  likewise  a  priest,   "not 

merely  by  birth,  but  by  the  grace  of  God." 

"  He  so  identified  himself  with  his  people  as  to 

i  feel  their  sins  and  sufferings  his  own,  and  to 


THE  PATRIOT  AND  SAINT 


196 


The  Thbee  Sympathies. 


196  JEEEMIAH 

bear  them  on  his  heart  before  God."  This 
prophet  and  priest  laid  down  his  life,  but  he 
could  not  save  his  people  from  their  sins  and 
their  doom.  He  could  only  foreshadow  the 
coming  of  a  Greater  than  he.  Jeremiah  was 
neglected  by  men,  who  counted  him  worse 
than  a  failure,  who  scoffed  at  him  as  a  weak- 
ling, and  who  slew  him  as  a  pessimist.  But 
this  patriot,  this  seer,  this  saint  was  exalted  by 
his  God  to  be  a  type  of  the  Saviour  of  the 
world. 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED  EEVIVAL      197 


Signs 

of 
Need 

Tokens 

of  its 

Presence 

Spiritual 
Blessings 

Alternative 
Curses 

i. 

Ingratitude 

i. 

Liberality 

i. 

"  Heard  " 

i. 

Failure 

2. 

Irreverence 

2. 

Reverence 

2. 

"  Remembered  " 

2. 

Punishment 

3- 
Unworthy 
Priesthood 

3- 

Meditation 

3- 
"  Owned  " 

3- 
Burning 

4- 
Worldliness 

4- 
Service 

4- 

"  Spared  " 

4- 
Defeat 

5- 
Envy 

5- 
Cordiality 

5- 
"  Separated  " 

5- 
Pestilence 

Purely 
Spiritual 

Purely 
Spiritual 

Purely 
Spiritual 

Largely 
Spiritual 

Malachi  :  An  Old-Fashioned  Eevival. 


IX 

MALACHI :  AN  OLD-FASHIONED 
REVIVAL 

"  Jk  JJT  Y  Messenger  "  is  the  meaning  of 
\/ 1  the  word  Malachi.  It  seems  to  be 
-*-  *  -■"  the  name  of  the  prophet,  but  it 
may  be  only  the  general  title  of  his  message. 
He  is  known  to  us  solely  as  he  reveals  himself 
in  these  four  brief  chapters,  which  concern 
others  rather  than  himself.  He  seems  to  have 
been  a  priest,  and  to  have  written  in  the  fifth 
century  before  Christ,  after  the  Temple  had 
been  rebuilt,  and  perhaps  during  the  interim 
while  Nehemiah  was  at  the  Persian  Court, 
prior  to  his  second  journey  to  Jerusalem. 
"Written  twenty-four  hundred  years  ago,  this 
book  has  a  message  for  us  to-day,  because  its 
central  theme  is  revival. 

Malachi  was  a  teacher  and  debater,  rather 
than  a  poet  and  orator.  He  had  little  of  the 
impassioned  feeling  and  the  lofty  utterance  of 
earlier  seers,  but  he  was  master  of  a  style  in 
keeping  with  his  message,  which  he  called  a 
burden,  meaning  a  heavy  judgment.  In  de- 
198 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED  EEVIVAL     199 

livering  this  message,  he  depended  largely 
upon  argument  and  expostulation,  ( which 
aroused  his  hearers  to  interrupt  him  at  every 
turn,  and  to  challenge  him  to  prove  his  asser- 
tions. But  sturdy  spirit  that  he  was,  he  de- 
fended his  position  with  vigour  and  skill.  At 
last  he  convinced  them  that  they  were  living 
in  such  worldliness  and  sin  that  they  could  not 
expect  the  blessing  of  Jehovah. 

I.     The  Need  for  a  Revival    \ 

Keligious  conditions  in  Judah  after  the  Exile 
must  have  been  a  sore  disappointment  to  Mala- 
chi,  and  to  all  others  who  were  spiritual  at 
heart.  The  Exile  had  been  an  untold  blessing 
to  the  Hebrews,  for  in  some  mysterious  fashion 
their  residence  in  a  foreign  land,  surrounded  on 
every  side  by  the  most  vicious  paganism,  had 
almost  wholly  weaned  them  from  their  old  be- 
setting sin,  idolatry.  But  even  after  they  had 
returned  to  their  beloved  land,  they  were  far 
from  perfect,  and  when  their  first  religious 
zeal  had  abated,  the  teachings  of  the  prophets 
began  to  seem  like  an  old,  old  story.  It  is 
small  wonder,  then,  that  Malachi  arose  to  point 
out  on  every  hand  the  tokens  of  the  need  for  a 
revival. 

This  prophet  of  old  pointed  out  five  danger 


200  MALACHI 

signals,  which  are  strangely  like  the  signs  of 
the  need  for  a  revival  in  the  modern  world,  as 
listed  by  Finney,  the  American  evangelist :  the 
want  of  brotherly  love  among  the  children  of 
God  ;  a  worldly  spirit  in  the  Church  ;  members 
falling  into  gross  sin ;  the  wicked  triumphing 
over  the  righteous ;  sinners  careless  and  un- 
concerned. How  similar  are  these  five  danger 
signals  of  Finney  to  those  five  of  Malachi! 
On  the  surface,  religious  conditions  in  the  days 
of  Finney  had  undergone  a  vast  change,  and 
largely  for  the  better,  but  at  heart,  sin  and 
righteousness  are  ever  the  same.  Surely  we, 
too,  need  a  revival  I 

The  first  of  these  danger  signals  of  Malachi 
was  the  spirit  of  ingratitude  (Chap.  i.  1-6). 
Israel  had  been  chosen  of  God  to  be  His 
peculiar  people.  They  had  ever  been  nurtured 
with  loving  care,  but  they  had  scarcely  ap- 
preciated their  blessings,  or  thanked  the 
Heavenly  Giver.  "  A  son  honoureth  his  father, 
and  a  servant  his  master  :  if  then  I  am  a  Fa- 
ther, where  is  Mine  honour;  and  if  I  am  a 
Master,  where  is  My  fear  ? "  Ingratitude ! 
This  first  sin  was  closely  bound  up  with  the 
second,  which  was  charged  directly  against  the 
priests,  but  which  was  shared  by  the  people  as 
followers  of  these  godless  guides.     This  second 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED  EEVIVAL     201 

danger  signal  was  the  spirit  of  irreverence 
(Chap.  i.  7-14). 

During  the  Exile,  many  of  the  people  must 
have  fallen  into  careless  ways  of  worship,  and 
after  their  return,  almost  as  soon  as  they  had 
become  accustomed  to  the  novelty  of  the 
Temple,  they  were  guilty  of  sins  with  scarcely 
a  parallel  in  the  days  of  their  fathers.  Twice 
the  prophet  charged  them  with  saying  that  the 
table  of  Jehovah  was  contemptible, — a  senti- 
ment which  to  an  earlier  Hebrew  would  have 
been  almost  unthinkable.  Malachi  showed  that 
his  people  were  equally  irreverent  in  their  offer- 
ings. In  olden  times  those  who  professed  to 
obey  the  law  brought  to  Jehovah  the  best  that 
they  had,  but  in  the  newly  erected  Temple 
Malachi  saw  on  every  hand  polluted  bread,  as 
well  as  beasts  that  were  lame  and  blind  and 
sick.  With  indignation  he  told  them  that  they 
would  never  think  of  presenting  to  their  gov- 
ernor such  gifts  as  they  were  bringing  to  their 
God.     Irreverence !     f  \  / 

The  third  danger  signal  was  the  unworthy 
priesthood  (Chap.  ii.  1-10  et  al.).  In  these 
latter  days  of  the  Old  Dispensation,  the  power 
of  the  prophets  was  waning,  and  that  of  the 
priests  was  growing.  While  Zerubbabel  lived, 
the  priesthood  was  somewhat  worthy,  but  after 


\ 


202  MALACHI 

he  was  gone,  the  power  fell  into  the  hands  of 
men  who  were  not  strong  enough  to  resist  their 
>new  temptations.  These  unworthy  priests 
quickly  made  their  office  base  and  contempt- 
ible. They  themselves  turned  aside  from 
righteousness  and  truth ;  as  blind  leaders  of 
a  blind  people,  they  caused  others  to  stumble 
with  them,  and  to  fall  into  the  ditch.  Malachi 
told  them  sharply  that  for  all  this  Jehovah 
would  bring  them  into  judgment ;  and  then, 
as  if  to  shame  them  for  their  sins,  he  painted 
in  colours  vivid  and  strong  a  picture  of  the 
ideal  priest. 

"My  covenant  was  with  him  of  life  and 
peace ;  and  I  gave  them  to  him  that  he  might 
fear ;  and  he  feared  Me,  and  stood  in  awe  of 
My  name.  The  law  of  truth  was  in  his  mouth, 
and  unrighteousness  was  not  found  in  his  lips  : 
he  walked  with  Me  in  peace  and  uprightness, 
and  turned  many  away  from  iniquity.  For 
the  priest's  lip  should  keep  knowledge,  and 
they  should  seek  the  law  at  his  mouth  ;  for  he 
is  the  messenger  of  Jehovah  of  hosts."  These 
lofty  words,  and  especially  the  closing  phrase, 
increase  our  belief  that  the  prophet  himself  was 
also  a  priest. 

The  fourth  sign  of  the  need  for  a  revival 
was  unfaithfulness  (Chap.  ii.  10-16).     "  Judah 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED  EEVIVAL     203 

hath  profaned  the  holiness  of  Jehovah,  which 
He  loveth,  and  hath  married  the  daughter  of  a 
foreign  god."  This  figure  is  somewhat  differ- 
ent in  form  from  that  of  Hosea,  but  the  mean- 
ing is  almost  the  same.  The  people  as  a  whole, 
and  many  of  them  as  individuals,  were  untrue 
to  Jehovah.  Hence  they  were  untrue  to  one 
another.  Not  content  with  their  sins  of  sor- 
eery,  of  perjury,  and  of  oppression,  they  en- 
tered into  mixed  marriages,  they  practiced 
adultery  and  they  encouraged  divorce.  "  Jeho- 
vah hath  been  witness  between  thee  and  the 
wife  of  thy  youth,  against  whom  thou  hast 
dealt  treacherously,  though  she  is  thy  com- 
panion, and  the  wife  of  thy  covenant.  And 
did  He  not  make  one?  .  .  .  And  where- 
fore one  ?  He  sought  a  godly  seed."  Unfaith- 
fulness ! 

The  fifth  sign,  and  far  from  the  least,  was 
the  spirit  of  envy  (Chaps,  ii.  17  and  iii.  13-15). 
This  was  almost  a  new  note  in  the  history  of 
the  Hebrews.  In  other  days,  when  they  had 
turned  away  from  Jehovah,  it  was  because 
they  had  dallied  with  some  alien  deity ;  but 
here,  while  professing  still  to  serve  Jehovah, 
they  complained  bitterly  against  His  apparent 
favouritism  to  the  wicked  !  In  other  portions 
of  the  Old  Testament,  as  in  the  Seventy-third 


204  MALACHI 

Psalm,  or  in  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  a  man 
groping  his  way  out  into  the  light  would  give 
utterance  to  such  unworthy  thoughts;  but 
for  the  people  as  a  whole  to  be  moved  by 
envy  of  evil-doers,  and  to  flaunt  before  the 
world  their  dissatisfaction  with  their  God,  was 
as  new  as  it  was  alarming.  Those  misguided 
folk  were  saying  that  the  wicked  were 
favoured  of  Jehovah,  that  only  the  doers  of 
evil  were  happy,  and  that  when  the  wicked 
fell  into  snares,  they  were  delivered  by  the 
Almighty.  Hence  those  self-styled  righteous 
folk  said  that  it  was  vain  to  serve  God,  that 
it  profited  nothing  to  keep  His  ordinances,  and 
to  walk  mournfully  before  their  God.  .  Envy ! 

This  picture  as  a  whole,  apart  from  some  of 
its  details,  is  strangely  modern.  No  one  of 
these  danger  signals  pointed  out  by  Malachi 
is  missing  from  the  modern  Church  ;  in  fact, 
these  five  forms  of  evil,  as  well  as  those  other 
five  listed  by  Finney,  are  so  prevalent  to-day 
that  it  would  be  difficult  to  mention  any  one 
of  them  which  is  less  prominent  than  the 
others.  Ingratitude,  irreverence,  an  unworthy 
priesthood,  unfaithfulness,  envy, — what  an  in- 
dictment !  From  which  of  these  charges  shall 
we  try  to  clear  ourselves  ?  Shall  it  be  from 
the  sin  of  envy  ?    No !     We  have  become  ac- 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED  EEVIVAL     205 

customed  to  a  worldly  atmosphere,  which  en- 
courages us  as  professed  children  of  God  to 
covet  the  property  of  our  godless  neighbours, 
and  so  we  can  scarcely  understand  wherein  lies 
our  peril.  But  instead  of  pausing  just  now  to 
search  our  hearts  and  our  churches,  Jtp  see  Jf^ 
j;liere_be_a^y^w1cked  wayj^jis^J^t^s^ather 
turn  agamtoJVIalaciaijjmd  humbly  learn  from 
him  how  we  can  be  set  free  from  our  sins. 

II     The  Signs  of  the  Revival 

Malachi  would  scarcely  recognize  such  stand- 
ardized evangelistic  campaigns  as  we  have  ever 
with  us.  Across  the  sea  they  are  known  as 
"American  revivals," — a  term  suggestive  of 
wide  publicity,  vast  assemblies,  thrilling  ser- 
mons, fiery  singing  and  colossal  free-will  offer- 
ings, carefully  arranged  in  advance.  Such  re- 
vivals are  doing  much  to  restore  to  modern 
religion  the  old  prophetic  note  of  righteousness ; 
but  it  is  useless  to  disguise  the  fact  that  popular 
thinking  about  evangelism  has  drifted  far  from 
the  old-fashioned  simplicity  of  Malachi,  with 
whom  the  tokens  of  revival  were  wholly  spir- 
itual. In  glancing  at  these  spiritual  tokens,  we 
may  well  depart  from  his  unstudied  treatment, 
and  present  them  all  too  formally,  so  as  to 
contrast  with  the  sins  to  be  washed  away. 


206  MALACHI 

The  first  token  of  the  presence  of  revival 
was  the  new  spirit  of  liberality,  which  was  the 
opposite  of  their  former  sin  of  ingratitude.  The 
people  appear  to  have  ceased  from  their  niggard- 
liness in  religion,  and  to  have  begun  to  bring 
into  the  storehouse  the  whole  tithe,  and  only  of 
their  best.  Many  of  us  to-day  see  no  escape 
from  the  conclusion  that  widespread  and  lasting 
revival  can  scarcely  come  to  the  Church  until  we 
accept  the  tithe  as  the  minimum  standard  for 
our  giving.  In  view  of  the  vast  need  for  money 
to  carry  on  the  work  of  the  Kingdom,  Chris- 
tians in  revival  times  could  never  be  content 
with  doing  less  than  the  ancient  Hebrews. 
When  all  of  us  begin  to  bring  the  whole  tithe 
into  the  Church  Treasury,  which  corresponds 
to  the  prophet's  storehouse,  there  will  not  be 
room  in  it  to  receive  our  offerings,  and  there 
will  not  be  room  in  our  hearts  to  receive  the 
overflowing  mercies  of  God.     Liberality ! 

The  second  mark  of  revival  was  the  spirit  of 
reverence.  "They  feared  Jehovah."  Instead 
of  the  irreverence  of  many  an  American  re- 
vival, with  its  enthusiasm  uncontrolled,  its 
methods  extremely  unconventional,  and  its  ap- 
peals smacking  of  worldliness, — the  old-fash- 
ioned revival  made  it  easier,  and  not  harder, 
to  fear  Jehovah.     Such  fear  was  the  dominant 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED  REVIVAL     207 

note  of  every  saintly  life.  In  the  American 
revival  there  is  in  the  heart  of  every  sincere 
believer  more  or  less  of  such  godly  fear,  but  as 
a  rule  it  is  beneath  the  surface.  We  smile  in  a 
superior  sort  of  way  when  we  think  how  the 
fathers  and  mothers  prayed  and  sang  with  rever- 
ence and  godly  fear,  but  ere  long  we  find  our- 
selves yearning  for  something  of  the  strength 
and  the  sweetness  which  filled  their  hearts. 
They  knew  so  well  the  God  of  holy  love,  that 
they  feared  to  displease  Him  by  breaking  His 
laws.  Even  in  revival  times,  they  were  willing 
to  let  Him  choose  His  spiritual  methods,  and 
prepare  the  way  for  His  spiritual  mercies  to 
flow  into  the  hearts  which  fear  of  Him  had 
cleansed.  "  The  secret  of  the  Lord  is  with  them 
that  fear  Him."  If  such  be  the  slavish  fear, 
may  the  tribe  of  slaves  increase !     Reverence ! 

The  third  token  was  meditation.  "They 
thought  on  His  name."  In  modern  evangel- 
ism we  are  often  content  with  absence  of 
thought,  provided  we  have  an  excess  of  feel- 
ing. If  we  ministers  are  too  busy  to  prepare 
thoughtful  messages,  based  on  careful  study  of 
the  Book,  we  are  tempted  to  resort  to  what 
we  style  "  evangelistic  talks."  But  in  the  old- 
fashioned  revival,  "  they  thought  on  His  name"; 
in  Hebrew  thought  the  name  represented  the 


208  MA  LA  CHI 

character.  They  thought  much  about  God'. 
They  must  have  spent  much  time  in  prayerful 
study  of  the  Bible,  known  to  many  of  them 
doubtless  only  by  memory.  "O  how  love  I 
Thy  law ;  it  is  my  meditation  all  the  day."  If 
we  look  behind  the  scenes  of  such  evangelistic 
campaigns  as  those  conducted  by  Mr.  Sunday, 
despite  all  their  spectacular  display,  culminating 
in  the  song  about  the  brewer's  big  horses,  we 
find  that  the  mighty  power  of  those  mass 
meetings  is  due  most  largely  to  Bible  study 
and  to  prayer.  Proper  use  of  these  old-fash- 
ioned spiritual  methods  should  bring  a  revival 
to  any  church.     Meditation ! 

"They  thought  on  His  name,"  and  "they 
served  Him."  In  the  normal  life  of  the  chil- 
dren of  God,  meditation  and  service  are  one 
and  inseparable ;  the  passive  and  the  active,  the 
contemplative  and  the  practical,  must  blend. 
Either  without  the  other  would  be  almost 
harmful :  meditation  without  service  would 
soon  degenerate  into  religious  day-dreaming; 
and  service  without  meditation  would  soon 
smack  of  materialism.  But  when  properly 
fused  together  in  the  heart,  these  twain  are 
almost  irresistible.  Spiritual  meditation  re- 
veals the  heavenly  vision,  and  spiritual  service 
"  gives  to  airy  nothing  a  local  habitation  and  a 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED  KEVIYAL     209 

name."  In  revival  days,  men  and  women  and 
children,  no  longer  content  with  thinking  and 
talking  and  singing  about  spiritual  things,  be- 
gin most  seriously  to  perform  every  known 
duty,  and  all  for  the  glory  of  God.  They  begin 
to  carry  their  religion,  with  perfection  as  its 
standard,  and  with  love  divine  as  its  motive 
power,  into  all  their  routine  tasks  and  joys. 
Service ! 

The  last  token  of  the  presence  of  revival  is 
the  most  surprising.  "  They  spake  often  one  to 
another."  This  token  may  well  stand  last,  for 
unless  the  other  graces  precede,  cordiality  means 
little  to  the  Kingdom.  Imagine  friendliness 
without  liberality,  or  reverence,  or  meditation, 
or  service !  But  if  all  of  these  graces  abound, 
cordiality  should  likewise  abound.  Instead  of 
jealousy  and  backbiting,  coldness  and  cliques, 
the  children  of  God  love  all  of  their  brethren, 
and  show  this  love  in  their  daily  speech.  It 
makes  a  great  deal  of  difference  what  we  say 
when  we  try  to  be  cordial.  We  can  surmise 
what  Malachi's  brethren  said  one  to  another, 
when  their  hearts  were  overflowing  with  love : 
they  would  confess  their  sins,  and  seek  friendly 
counsel,  and  cheer  one  another  along  life's 
rough  way,  and  speak  many  words  of  simple 
human  fellowship.     Love  is  rarely  at  a  loss  for 


210  MALACHI 

something  to  say.  When  the  children  of  God 
dwell  together  in  unity,  His  favour  crowns  the 
work  of  revival.     Cordiality  1 

III.     The  Blessings  of  Revival 

The  blessings  which  Malachi  saw  in  the 
Church,  when  filled  with  revival  power,  were 
purely  spiritual.  Instead  of  counting  heads, 
and  even  dollars,  as  we  should  do,  he  has  given 
us  an  imposing  array  of  spiritual  mercies. 
First  of  all,  the  prayers  of  God's  people  were 
heard,  doubtless  because  those  prayers  were 
more  spiritual  and  fervent  than  before.  In  a 
sense,  our  Heavenly  Father  hears  all  of  our 
prayers,  as  well  as  all  of  our  curses^  but  not  to 
'  bless.  Xisten  to  the  King  in  Hamlet,  when  he 
tries  to  pray,  although  he  has  not  repented  for 
his  sin  — 

"  My    words  go  up,   my  thoughts  remain 
below ; 
Words  without  thoughts  never  to  heaven 
go." 

In  the  deepest  sense,  such  prayers  are  not  heard ; 
but  in  revival  times,  when  we  learn  really  to 
pray,  all  our  prayers  are  heard,  and  all  are  an- 
swered, usually  in  the  affirmative. 

The  second  blessing  is  likewise  spiritual.     "  A 
book  of  remembrance  was  written  before  Him 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED  EEVIVAL     211 

for  them  that  feared  Jehovah,  and  that  thought 
upon  His  name."  If  we  revere  God,  He  re- 
members us !  The  figure  here  is  most  suggest- 
ive :  in  revival  times,  new  names  are  written  in 
the  book  of  the  Lord,  and  other  names,  written 
long  since,  but  blotted  by  sin,  are  now  made 
bright  as  new.  Closely  allied  to  this  promise 
is  another :  "  They  shall  be  Mine,  saith  Jehovah, 
in  the  day  that  I  make."  They  belong  to  Him, 
as  well  as  to  His  Church,  and  He  will  keep 
them  safe.  Even  in  the  great  and  terrible  Day 
of  Jehovah,  that  day  whose  coming  no  man 
can  foretell,  He  will  claim  these  children  as 
eternally  His  own. 

In  the  fourth  place,  these  children  of  God 
are  to  be  spared,  "  as  a  man  spareth  his  own  son 
that  serveth  him."  The  Old  Testament  is  com- 
monly supposed  to  represent  God  only  as  Judge 
and  King,  but  here  it  reveals  Him  as  at  the 
same  time  the  Father.  He  spares  His  children, 
not  from  burdens  and  trials,  but  doubtless  from 
burdens  too  heavy  and  from  temptations  too 
strong.  He  treats  them,  not  as  pets  to  be 
pampered  as  playthings  for  an  idle  hour,  but  as 
children  to  be  trained  for  an  eternal  ministry. 
In  view  of  such  a  promise,  that  which  follows 
is  not  strange ;  "  Then  shall  ye  return  and  dis- 
cern between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked,  be- 


212  MALACHI 

tween  hiin  that  serveth  God  and  him  that 
serveth  not."  Instead  of  the  former  coldness, 
when  the  professed  children  of  light  could 
scarcely  mark  the  difference  between  themselves 
and  the  children  of  darkness,  in  revival  days 
the  children  of  God  begin  to  lead  such  a  shin- 
ing life  that  they  can  never  again  ask  them- 
selves whether  it  pays  to  serve  the  Lord.  The 
separated  life ! 

/  V.     The  Alternative  to  a  Revival 

When  we  turn  to  the  closing  chapter  of 
Malachi,  and  read  curse  after  curse,  or  ban 
after  ban,  to  use  the  softer  word,  we  are  tempted 
to  wish  that  we  knew  more  about  the  revival  in 
his  day.  Was  it  merely  local  and  temporary  ? 
We  cannot  tell.  We  merely  know  that  after 
painting  the  brightest  picture  of  the  blessings 
of  revival,  he  painted  the  darkest  picture  of  the 
ways  in  which  Jehovah  would  punish  hardened 
impenitence.  Unless  the  people  sought  the 
favour  of  the  Lord,  sooner  or  later  they  would 
feel  the  weight  of  His  hand.  If  they  neglected 
their  spiritual  opportunities,  if  they  did  not 
make  the  most  of  promised  mercies,  if  they  let 
their  blessings  slip  away  through  careless 
fingers,  they  could  expect  only  one  alternative. 

The  Day  of  Jehovah  was  coming.     For  the 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED  EEVIVAL     213 

righteous,  it  would  mean  blessings  rich  and 
vast ;  for  the  wicked,  and  especially  for  those 
who  were  wicked  in  heart,  while  professing  to 
be  righteous,  it  would  mean  a  curse.  This 
word  curse,  or  ban,  is  the  last  word  in  the  Old 
Testament,  and  in  every  heart  it  should  echo 
its  message  of  warning.  The  Hebrews,  who 
are  extremely  sensitive  in  such  matters,  often 
transpose  the  last  two  verses  of  Malachi,  so  that 
their  Bible  may  not  close  with  a  word  of  ill 
omen.  They  resort  to  a  similar  expedient  in 
the  books  of  Isaiah,  of  Ecclesiastes  and  of  Lam- 
entations ;  but  they  cannot  thus  easily  hide 
from  their  eyes  the  dark  truth  that  the  alter- 
native to  a  genuine  revival  is  a  fivefold  curse, 
or  ban. 

The  prophet's  teaching  here  is  largely  figura- 
tive, but  wrapped  up  in  each  figure  is  a  great, 
black  fact.  His  first  picture  is  that  of  failure. 
"I  will  curse  your  blessings."  This  is  a  hard 
saying.  If  it  be  failure,  as  we  often  think,  not 
to  receive  blessings,  how  much  worse  the  fail- 
ure when  we  receive  blessings  rich  and  vast, 
and  by  our  sins  transform  them  into  curses ! 
To-day,  as  in  Judah  of  old,  every  blessing, 
physical  or  spiritual,  may  by  our  neglect  be- 
come a  curse.  Closely  allied  to  this  teaching 
is  that  of  punishment,  "  I  will  come  near  to 


214  MALACHI 

you  to  judgment."  The  prophet  does  not  say 
how  this  judgment  is  to  come,  or  when  ;  he  lays 
his  whole  stress  upon  the  central  truth  that 
doom  will  fall  upon  all  who  fear  not  Jehovah. 

The  third  picture  is  that  of  burning.  Malachi 
employs  this  figure  to  portray  both  the  bless- 
ing of  the  righteous,  and  the  doom  of  the 
wicked.  In  the  refiner's  flame,  the  righteous 
are  to  be  tried,  and  from  it  they  are  to  emerge 
as  pure  silver.;  but  for  the  wicked,  this  same 
burning  is  to  be  a  consuming  fire.  They  are 
to  be  as  stubble  which  cannot  withstand  the 
heat,  and  as  a  tree  whose  root  and  branch  are 
to  be  consumed.  Once  more,  the  form  of  the 
truth  changes  to  that  of  defeat.  The  counsels 
of  the  wicked  are  not  forever  to  flourish  ;  at 
the  hands  of  the  righteous  they  are  to  suffer  a 
decisive  defeat.  The  schemes  on  which  they 
pride  themselves  are  to  be  reversed,  and  all 
their  proud  hopes  are  to  be  blasted. 

The  scene  shifts  for  the  last  time,  and  re- 
veals the  pestilence,  "  Lest  I  come  and  smite 
the  earth  with  a  curse."  What  a  picture  of 
the  Holy  Land  to-day,  which  once  flowed  with 
milk  and  honey !  The  hearts  of  the  people 
did  not  turn  towards  the  God  of  righteousness  ; 
and  so  their  fate  was  the  pestilence,  which 
stalks  through  the  land,  leaving  everywhere  a 


AN  OLD-FASHIONED  EEVIVAL     215 

trail  of  death.  Such  is  the  last  of  Malachi's 
pictures  of  the  doom  which  will  fall  upon  us  if 
we  do  not  accept  the  blessings  of  spiritual  re- 
vival. As  our  mercies  are  more  rich  and  vast 
than  those  of  Judah,  so  will  our  doom  be  more 

S  .  -    -  ......... 

awful,  unless  we  repent. 

V.     The  Hojyefor  a  Revival  Today 

We  ought  to  rejoice  because  the  true  revival 
is  wholly  spiritual.  If  it  depended  upon  mere 
money,  upon  executive  ability,  upon  numbers, 
or  upon  anything  worldly  or  material,  many 
of  us  might  well  despair  of  having  a  revival  in 
our  churches.  The  Lord  will  bless  the  means 
which  He  has  put  into  our  hands,  for  He  wishes 
us  to  serve  Him  with  our  best ;  but  if  we  are 
without  the  instruments  which  appear  to  the 
modern  world  to  be  indispensable,  we  must 
still  trust  Him  to  open  the  windows  of  heaven 
and  pour  out  the  blessing.  A  genuine  revival 
among  the  children  of  God  should  be  possible 
at  any  time  and  at  any  place.  It  should  be 
possible  for  you,  just  where  you  are,  and  just 
now.  Malachi  has  shown  us  our  need,  and  he 
has  shown  us  the  certainty  of  spiritual  supply 
for  all  our  spiritual  needs.  "  Unto  you  that 
fear  My  name  shall  the  Sun  of  righteousness 
arise  with  healing  in  its  wings." 


216 


JESUS  CHRIST 


CREDEN- 
TIALS 

REPUTA- 
TION 

PREDIC- 
TION 

TEACH- 
ING 

RELATION 
TO 
G-OD 

RELATION 

TO 

MAN 

O.T.PROPHECY 

Jesus  Chbist  :  The  Matchless  Prophet. 


JESUS  CHRIST :  THE  MATCHLESS 
PROPHET 

A  CLOSER  acquaintance  with  the  proph- 
ets of  the  Old  Testament  should  in- 
crease our  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ, 
for  He  was  a  Prophet.  To  speak  more  cor- 
rectly, He  was  and  is  the  only  Prophet,  Whom 
Isaiah  and  all  of  those  other  worthies  resembled, 
so  far  as  they  were  true  to  the  prophetic  ideal. 
In  their  loftiest  messages  they  foretold  His 
coming,  and  in  their  lives  they  foreshadowed 
His  character.  Passing  by  for  the  nonce  the 
fact  that  He  was  more  than  this,  almost  in- 
finitely more,  let  us  state  our  reasons  for  speak- 
ing of  Him  as  a  Prophet. 

I.     The  Old  Testament  Basis 

Jesus  Christ  fulfilled  the  Old  Testament  pre- 
dictions concerning  the  Messiah.  This  fact 
shines  from  many  a  page  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  especially  when  it  quotes  from  the 
Old,  as  in  the  Gospel  according  to  Matthew, 
and  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  "  God, 
217 


218  JESUS  CHEIST 

having  of  old  times  spoken  unto  the  fathers  in 
the  prophets  by  divers  portions  and  in  divers 
manners,  hath  at  the  end  of  these  days  spoken 
unto  us  in  His  Son."  As  Dr.  W.  J.  Beecher 
has  shown  us,  Old  Testament  predictions  con- 
cerning the  Messiah  as  Prophet  are  many  and 
various.  Two  examples  will  serve,  either  of 
which  would  repay  extended  study. 

In  Deuteronomy  xviii.  15,  Moses  gives  the 
people  from  whom  he  is  soon  to  depart  this 
comforting  promise :  "  Jehovah  thy  God  will 
raise  up  unto  thee  a  prophet  from  the  midst  of 
thy  brethren,  like  unto  me ;  unto  him  ye  shall 
hearken."  Still  more  significant  are  the  familiar 
words  from  Isaiah  lxi.  l-d,  as  quoted  by  the 
Master  in  the  synagogue  at  Nazareth.  If  we 
are  to  give  these  words  their  due  weight,  we 
must  remember  that  they  were  written  by  a 
prophet,  in  foretelling  the  work  of  the  coming 
Messiah,  and  that  they  were  definitely  appro- 
priated to  Himself  by  the  Master,  when  He 
said,  "  To-day  hath  this  scripture  been  fulfilled 
in  your  ears." 

11  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  Me, 
Because  He  hath  anointed  Me  to  preach 

good  tidings  to  the  poor ; 
He  hath  sent  Me  to  proclaim  release  to  the 

captives, 


THE  MATCHLESS  PROPHET        219 

And  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
To  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised, 
To  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the 
Lord." 

The  Master's  life  on  earth  was  largely  that  of 
a  prophet.  He  was  reared  in  much  the  same 
sort  of  way  as  many  of  the  Old  Testament 
seers ;  He  entered  His  public  ministry  only  after 
a  vision  which  set  Him  apart  from  His  fellows ; 
He  spent  His  days  and  His  nights  as  a  herald 
of  righteousness  ;  because  He  was  true  to  God, 
He  was  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake ;  and 
at  last  He  was  slain.  This  parallel  might  be 
extended  still  further,  but  only  with  extreme 
caution,  for  there  are  many  respects  in  which 
the  Son  of  God  was  unlike  other  prophets. 

The  largeness  of  this  resemblance  should  be 
clear  from  a  glance  at  the  titles  used  in  describ- 
ing the  prophets.  How  many  of  these  would 
not  fitly  apply  to  the  Master  ?  Was  He  not  a 
"  prophet,"  in  the  sense  of  the  original  word, 
which  means  a  speaker  forth  for  God,  a  "  seer," 
a  "  man  of  God,"  a  "  servant  of  Jehovah,"  a 
"man  of  the  Spirit,"  a  "messenger  of  Jehovah," 
an  "  ambassador,"  a  "  watchman  "  ?  Yes !  He 
was  worthy  to  bear  all  of  these  titles,  and 
others  so  lofty  that  no  mortal  could  bear 
them. 


220  JESUS  CHEIST 

II  His  Claims  and  His  Credentials 
Jesus  Christ  claimed  to  be  a  Prophet,  and  for 
the  children  of  God  such  a  claim  from  Him  is 
final.  We  can  only  ask  what  He  meant,  and 
yearn  to  live  in  the  light  which  He  revealed. 
At  the  Yery  beginning  of  His  ministry,  as  we 
have  seen,  before  He  had  begun  to  lay  stress 
upon  the  fact  that  He  was  Priest  or  King,  He 
introduced  Himself  as  the  Prophet.  From  time 
to  time  during  the  course  of  His  public  ministry, 
He  called  attention  to  this  same  fact ;  and  as 
the  end  drew  near,  this  early  truth  kept  its 
place  in  His  teaching,  side  by  side  with  other 
truth  which  does  not  concern  us  here.  For 
example,  in  speaking  of  His  own  death  He 
said,  "  It  cannot  be  that  a  prophet  perish  out 
of  Jerusalem."  His  claim  appears,  not  so  much 
from  such  proof -texts,  as  from  the  tenor  of  His 
entire  teaching,  especially  as  voiced  in  the 
Gospel  according  to  John. 

In  support  of  this  claim,  the  Master  early  in 
His  public  ministry  began  to  display  to  the 
world  such  credentials  as  all  the  Old  Testa- 
ment prophets  together  could  not  have  pro- 
duced. He  performed  miracles,  not  only  that 
He  might  relieve  distress  and  illustrate  His 
teaching,  but  primarily  that  He  might  prove 
to  the  world  that  He  came  from  God.     In  His 


THE  MATCHLESS  PEOPHET        221 

teaching  He  so  impressed  His  hearers  that  they 
cried  out :  "  Never  man  so  spake  !  "  In  His 
predictions,  too,  He  rested  His  claim  upon  His 
power  to  read  and  to  interpret  the  future,  both 
near  and  remote.  Some  of  these  predictions, 
needless  to  say,  were  fulfilled  while  He  was  on 
earth ;  others,  after  He  ascended  into  glory ; 
and  many  yet  await  His  pleasure.  What  more 
could  He  have  said  or  done  to  show  that  He 
was  a  prophet  ? 

So  convincing  were  these  credentials  that 
even  the  enemies  of  Jesus  called  Him  a  prophet. 
This  claim  was  perhaps  the  only  one  which  was 
accepted  by  the  people  of  His  time.  Of  course 
they  did  not  mean  by  the  term  all  that  He 
meant  by  it,  but  they  often  spoke  of  Him 
as  a  prophet.  This  reputation  followed  Him 
throughout  His  ministry.  When  He  first  be- 
came known,  He  seemed  to  King  Herod  to  be 
John  the  Baptist,  risen  from  the  dead ;  to 
others  at  that  time,  Elijah ;  and  to  others  still, 
one  of  the  prophets.  Later  in  His  ministry, 
"  He  asked  the  disciples,  saying,  '  Who  do  men 
say  that  the  Son  of  Man  is,'  and  they  said, 
'  Some  say,  John  the  Baptist ;  some,  Elijah ; 
and  others,  Jeremiah,  or  one  of  the  prophets.' " 
On  the  eve  of  His  death,  "  when  He  was  come 
unto  Jerusalem,  all  the  city  was  stirred,  say- 


222  JESUS  CHEIST 

ing,  '  Who  is  this  ? '  and  the  multitude  said, 
'  This  is  the  prophet,  Jesus,  from  Nazareth  of 
Galilee.' " 

Such  tributes  gain  their  importance  from  the 
fact  that  they  were  always  accepted  by  the 
Master ;  and  that  they  were  welcomed  when- 
ever they  were  genuine,  as  from  the  two  dis- 
ciples on  the  way  to  Emmaus.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  the  Koran,  in  two  different 
passages,  speaks  of  Christ  as  a  prophet,  "  but 
only  a  prophet ; "  and  that  the  Christian  Church 
in  all  ages  has  hailed  Him  as  a  prophet,  and 
more  than  a  prophet.  The  Shorter  Catechism, 
for  example,  reflects  the  thinking  of  the  ortho- 
dox Church :  "  Christ  as  our  Redeemer  exe- 
cuteth  the  offices  of  a  Prophet,  of  a  Priest  and 
of  a  King,  both  in  His  estate  of  humiliation 
and  of  exaltation."  In  view  of  these  facts,  it 
is  surprising  to  hear  such  a  scholar  as  Professor 
James  Denney,  of  Glasgow,  insisting  that  Jesus 
was  not  a  prophet ! 

III.    His  Relation  to  God  and  to  the  People 

The  heart  of  the  prophetic  office,  as  we  have 
seen  elsewhere,  was  dependence  upon  God,  and 
in  no  other  was  this  so  absolute  as  in  the  rela- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ  to  His  Heavenly  Father. 
Such  dependence  appeared  when  Jesus  was  a 


THE  MATCHLESS  PROPHET        223 

boy  in  the  Temple ;  and  after  He  began  His 
public  ministry,  it  breathed  through  every 
word  which  fell  from  His  lips,  it  shone  through 
every  deed  wrought  by  His  loving  hands. 
Think  of  His  baptism,  of  His  temptation,  of 
His  daily  life,  of  His  miracles,  of  His  teach- 
ings, and  of  His  death  !  What  is  the  key-note 
of  it  all  ?  "  I  must  do  the  works  of  Him  that 
sent  Me."  "  Not  My  will,  but  Thine  be  done." 
Such  passages  abound  in  the  Gospel  according 
to  John,  and  while  they  show  far  more  than 
this,  they  show  us  now  that  Christ  bore  to  God 
the  ideal  prophetic  relation  of  absolute  de- 
pendence. 

Christ  as  a  prophet  was  in  the  noblest  sense 
independent  of  the  people.  This  truth,  also, 
has  another  side,  equally  winsome,  but  that 
does  not  concern  us  here.  He  was  no  whit 
subservient  to  the  people, — in  order  to  gain  a 
livelihood,  to  enhance  His  reputation,  to  estab- 
lish Himself  as  a  popular  leader,  or  for  any 
other  reason.  To  speak  of  such  baseness  in 
the  same  breath  with  His  holy  name  is  almost 
sacrilege,  but  we  must  so  speak,  in  order  to 
show  in  part  why  He  shared  the  prophet's  re- 
ward. "  So  persecuted  they  the  prophets  that 
were  before  you."  "It  cannot  be  that  a 
prophet  perish  out  of  Jerusalem !  " 


224  JESUS  CHEIST 

IV.  Sis  Twofold  Message 
The  message  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  world 
was  that  of  a  prophet ;  and  so  it  assumed  two 
forms,  closely  blended,  which  we  shall  style 
loosely  the  non-predictive  and  the  predictive, 
to  correspond  with  the  Law  and  the  Promise 
in  the  Old  Testament  prophets.  Of  these  two 
elements,  the  larger  in  bulk,  in  His  teaching  as 
in  theirs,  was  the  non-predictive.  The  religious 
world  to-day,  as  we  have  seen,  is  divided  some- 
what sharply  into  two  great  schools,  one  of 
which  lays  more  stress  upon  the  predictive  ele- 
ment of  prophecy,  whereas  the  other  school 
lays  more  stress  upon  the  non-predictive  ele- 
ment ;  and  nowhere  does  this  difference  in  em- 
phasis appear  more  strongly  than  in  dealing 
with  the  teachings  of  Christ.  But,  fortunately, 
all  evangelical  students  of  the  Book  recognize 
the  presence  of  each  element,  and  at  least  some- 
thing of  its  importance. 

The  non-predictive  teaching  of  the  Master, 
as  in  the  so-called  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  con- 
sists of  spiritual  principles  clearly  explained, 
largely  by  illustrations  from  surrounding  life ; 
and  not  of  mere  religious  rules  to  be  applied 
universally,  regardless  of  circumstances.  As  a 
prophet  the  Master  was  a  teacher  sent  from 
God  to  His  own  age,  first  of  all,  and  so  He 


THE  MATCHLESS  PROPHET        225 

spake  in  terms  which  they  could  understand. 
But  He  is  the  prophet  for  our  age,  also,  as  well 
as  for  every  other,  and  not  the  least  astounding 
of  His  numberless  powers  is  the  way  in  which 
His  teaching  meets  the  needs  of  every  age. 

The  teaching  of  the  Master  concerns  those 
same  truths  which  we  have  seen  unfolded  and 
enforced  by  the  old-time  seers :  truths  about 
God  and  man,  about  righteousness  and  salva- 
tion, about  sin  and  redemption.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  name  any  great  truth  in  the  Master's 
teaching  which  had  not  been  presented,  at  least 
in  dimmest  outline,  by  the  Old  Testament 
prophets;  but  it  would  be  equally  difficult  to 
mention  any  such  age-long  truth  upon  which 
He  did  not  throw  a  new  and  radiant  light. 
Think,  for  example,  of  His  teachings  about 
immortality.  As  we  shall  see,  He  not  only 
spoke  in  its  final  form  the  truth  which  the 
prophets  had  spoken  through  His  Holy  Spirit, 
but  He  Himself  was  the  incarnation  of  that 
truth,  and  so  He  is  to-day.  "I  am  .  .  . 
the  truth." 

This  teaching  falls  naturally  into  various 
groups,  and  it  would  be  interesting  to  classify 
religious  thinkers  according  as  they  emphasize 
most  strongly  what  the  Master  reveals  about 
God, — such  as  His  holiness  or  His  Fatherhood ; 


226  JESUS  CHEIST 

about  His  own  Person, — such  as  His  divinity 
or  His  incarnation ;  about  His  work, — such  as 
the  atonement  or  the  kingdom  ;  or  about  His 
corresponding  relation  to  us, — such  as  Saviour 
or  Master.  The  teaching  of  Jesus,  with  all  of 
its  many  forms,  was  at  heart  ever  one ;  and  so 
it  should  be  possible  for  us  to  learn  from  His 
life  and  His  words  the  central  truth  of  the 
Christian  religion.  Personally,  I  believe  this 
to  be  the  truth  about  God,  as  revealed  most 
fully  in  the  Christ  of  the  Cross,  and  as  made 
known  in  our  hearts  by  the  Spirit  of  the  living 
Christ. 

The  God  "Whom  Jesus  revealed,  both  in  His 
character  and  by  His  words,  is  the  same  God 
revealed  by  the  prophets,  the  God  of  righteous- 
ness and  of  love ;  but  Christ  as  our  Prophet 
revealed  God  in  such  a  vastly  higher  way  that 
He  seemed  to  the  world  to  be  almost  a  new 
God.  "  Have  I  been  so  long  time  with  you, 
and  yet  hast  thou  not  known  Me,  Philip  ?  He 
that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father." 
Under  this  first  great  principle  of  a  personal 
God,  revealed  in  His  only-begotten  Son,  for  the 
salvation  of  a  world  lost  in  sin, — one  may  well 
group  all  the  teachings  of  our  Prophet. 

The  teachings  of  Christ,  simple  as  they  at 
first  appear,  comprise  a  vast  world  of  truth. 


THE  MATCHLESS  PBOPHET         227 

They  reveal  much  about  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  about  the  worth  of  the  individual  soul; 
about  the  faith  which  links  the  souls  of  men  to 
the  grace  of  God,  and  about  the  love  which 
binds  the  children  of  God  to  their  brethren  on 
earth.  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law,  which 
is  never  for  an  instant  relaxed.  The  standard 
for  our  life  on  earth  is  nothing  short  of  perfec- 
tion, the  motive  for  such  lofty  spiritual  ambi- 
tion is  the  love  of  God,  and  the  power  enabling 
us  to  grow  towards  our  ideal  is  the  Spirit  of 
the  indwelling  Christ.  "  Ye  therefore  shall  be 
perfect,  as  your  heavenly  Father  is  perfect." 
Surely  such  a  teacher  was  "  a  prophet,  mighty 
in  deed  and  word  before  God  and  all  the 
people." 

The  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  include  a  fairly 
large  body  of  predictions,  both  general  and 
specific.  For  example,  there  are  predictions 
touching  the  progress  of  the  kingdom  on  earth, 
especially  as  it  concerns  Jerusalem,  and  its 
ultimate  consummation  in  heaven.  There  are 
predictions,  too,  concerning  Jesus  Himself,  and 
especially  concerning  His  death  on  the  cross, 
His  resurrection  and  His  second  coming. 
These  predictions,  and  others  like  them,  com- 
prise a  fairly  large  portion  of  His  words  while 
He  walked  among  men,  and  they  fill  the  larger 


228  JESUS  CHEIST 

portion  of  the  last  book  of  the  Bible,  spoken 
by  the  Ascended  Lord.  It  should  be  evident, 
therefore,  that  He  was,  and  is,  and  ever  shall 
be,  the  Prophet. 

V.     Vastly  More  Than  a  Prophet 

In  view  of  these  facts,  which  we  have  hastily 
reviewed,  facts  showing  that  Jesus  met  every 
test  of  a  prophet,  why  should  such  a  scholar  as 
Professor  Denney  refuse  to  employ  this  title 
in  speaking  of  the  Master  ?  Ah ;  it  is  because. 
Jesus  Christ  is  more  than  a  prophet.  What 
men  of  the  olden  time  knew  by  revelation,  and 
spake  by  inspiration,  Jesus  Christ  was  and  is  in 
Himself.  In  a  sense  which  does  not  begin  to 
be  true  of  any  other,  "  God  was  in  Christ  recon- 
ciling the  world  to  Himself."  All  of  this  is 
most  gloriously  true,  and  if  it  were  not  true, 
it  would  avail  us  little  to  hear  the  words  of 
Jesus  as  Prophet.  Let  us  therefore  glance  at 
some  of  the  respects^  in  which  He  differs  from 
the  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Jesus  Christ  is  the  final  Prophet.  He  alone 
could  say,  "  If  it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told 
you."  Those  who  went  before,  from  Moses  to 
John  the  Baptist,  prepared  the  way  for  Him, 
and  those  who  have  come  after,  from  John  and 
Paul  to  Spurgeon  and  Moody,  have  only  fol- 


THE  MATCHLESS  PEOPHET        229 

lowed  the  guidance  of  His  Spirit  in  unfolding 
the  truth  as  it  was  revealed  in  Him.  "  God 
having  of  old  time  spoken  unto  the  fathers  by 
divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners,  hath  at 
the  end  of  these  days  spoken  unto  us  in  His 
Son."  Jesus  Christ  is  God's  last  word  to  the 
world :  "  I  am  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  beginning 

and  the  end." 

- 

Our  Prophet  was  sinless.  Elijah  was  a  man 
of  like  passions  with  ourselves ;  Isaiah  con- 
fessed that  he  was  a  man  of  unclean  lips ;  but 
Jesus  Christ  could  say,  "  Which  of  you  con- 
vinceth  Me  of  sin  ?  "  Therefore  He  was  able 
to  reveal  the  will  of  God  concerning  sin  in  a 
way  which  these  others  could  only  approach. 
Any  reader  who  wishes  to  follow  out  this  line 
of  thought  should  turn  to  Ullmann's  masterly 
little  book,  "  The  Sinlessness  of  Jesus,"  or  to 
Gore's  "  Bampton  Lectures  on  the  Incarna- 
tion." 

The  sinless  Son  of  God  was  the  living 
Prophet.  Other  men  by  the  Spirit  learned 
the  will  of  God,  and  so  they  were  glad  to  be 
counted  worthy  to  die  for  the  truth,  bjit  He 
alone  could  say,  "  I  am  the  truth."  "  The 
difference  between  '  I  know '  and  '  I  am '  is 
the  difference  between  the  prophet  and  the 
Saviour."     Men  like  Jeremiah,  it  is  true,  wen* 


230  JESUS  CHRIST 

in  heart  and  in  life  so  much  like  the  coming 
Redeemer,  that  we  do  well  to  think  of  them, 
as  well  as  of  their  words,  as  messages  from 
God,  but  in  a  sense  vastly  higher  than  this, 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  Truth.  He  alone  is  the 
Word. 

The  message  of  this  sinless,  living  Prophet 
was  constant.  In  others  the  prophetic  gift 
ebbed  and  flowed,  and  the  inspired  record 
carefully  points  out  that  apart  from  the  special 
guidance  and  restraint  of  the  Spirit,  they  were 
fallible:  Samuel  thought  at  first  that  Eliab 
should  be  King;  and  Nathan  took  to  King 
David  a  message  which  quickly  ^prpved  not  to 
be  from  the  Lord.  How  different  the  pro- 
phetic powers  and  the  prophetic  ministry  of 
Him  Who  was  always  the  Word ! 

He  alone  was  the  timeless  prophet.  Other 
men  were  peculiarly  the  prophets  of  their  own 
times,  and  while  they  have  a  vital  message  for 
us  to-day,  and  for  every  age,  they  must  ever 
stand  before  the  world  as  ancient  Hebrews. 
But  Jesus  Christ  as  a  Prophet  is  the  same  to 
us  in  America  to-day  as  to  the  two  disciples 
whose  hearts  burned  within  them  as  He  opened 
to  them  the  Scriptures  concerning  Himself. 
To-morrow  and  always,  here  and  everywhere, 
on  earth  and  in  heaven,  He  shall  be  ever  the 


THE  MATCHLESS  PEOPHET         231 

same,  the  timeless  Prophet,  because  the  eternal 
Son  of  God. 

Yes,  Jesus  Christ  is  our  Prophet.  It  is  well 
for  us  to  think  of  the  many  respects  in  which 
the  mightiest  men  of  the  Old  Testament  were 
like  Him.  It  is  even  better  to  think  of  the 
many,  many  respects  in  which  they  were  al- 
most infinitely  less  than  He.  It  is  best  of  all  to 
know  that  He  is  vastly  more  than  our  Prophet. 
He  is  also  our  Priest  and  our  King.  Yes !  He 
is  our  Saviour,  our  Master,  our  God !  As  we 
close  this  series  of  popular  studies  on  the 
prophets,  culminating  in  a  distant  view  of  the 
Matchless  Prophet,  let  us  hear  the  voice  of 
^^Heave^l^^^^^ 

My  beloved  Son,  in  Whom  I  am  well  pleased; 
hear  ye  Him."  Then  we  shall  see  no  man,  but 
Jesus  only. 


232 


JESUS  CHRIST 


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PROPHET 

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The  Person  and  Work  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ 

As  Foretold  by  the  Prophets. 


Date  Due 


